Eggman's Guinea pig
by codeman-320
Summary: Eggman Captures Sonic and uses him to do his evil bidding.
1. Birthday plans

The sun is high up in the bright blue sky, the wind is blowing gently across fields of green and through the branches of the tall trees in the forest of Mobius. Sonic the hedgehog lies against a tree with a book to his face. His eyes dart back and forth through words of dialog with a smile across his face, he's enjoying it.

As Tails walks along the dirt road, he spots Sonic against a tree and with a book in his hand. He smirks at the image in front of him; Sonic, stopping in his tracks to read a book, Seems unreal. Tails turns on his twin tails and flies over to Sonic. He lands in front of Sonic on a pile of colored leaves, fall must be starting early, "Hey Sonic, what're you doing reading a book?"

Sonic caught a falling leaf from the tree above him and placed it in the book to save his place. He stood up with book in hand and acknowledged Tails "it's amazing isn't it, have you read it yet?"

"No I haven't, what's it called?" Tails asked.

"I don't know…" Sonic replied.

"You don't know? shouldn't there be a title on the front?" Tails received the book from Sonic and looked at it front to back and on the side.

"No, there's nothing on it." Sonic got the book back.

"Where'd you get it at?" Tails asked.

"On our last day on earth, I went into a book store in station square. The owner was nice enough to give it to me for free." Sonic chuckled.

"Well that was kind of him." Tails said.

"Yea and I guess it's pretty fair too. I scratch their backs, they scratch mine." Sonic slides down the grassy hill and onto the dirt road below.

"Very true, you saved their world a lot and you deserved a little present." Tails follows along beside him.

"I'm not trying to be selfish or anything but I think I deserve a lot for being the hero every single day." they both giggled together at the random conversation they were having.

Tails walks ahead of Sonic "Well I gotta get home Sonic, I'll see you later."

Sonic puts his hand on tail's shoulder "What's the big rush?"

Tails turns his body towards Sonic and begins explaining "I'm just working on something..." he turns his gaze to the ground hesitating to explain the rest.

"Mind if I help?" Sonic asks with a friendly smile stretched across his face.

Tails shook the offer away with his hands "That's okay, it'll probably be too complicated for you anyways." he began scratching the back of his head and his face showed that he was nervous, this project was too private for anyone else to interfere with.

Sonic crossed his arms with a huff "Thanks for insulting my intelligence..."

Tails felt guilty "no no I didn't mean you weren't smart enough. its just that I don't completely understand it yet. It's just something I need to do alone for a little while."

Sonic chuckled and put his arms down "heh, i'm just playing buddy. But hey, if you need a hand, you know where to find me." he gave Tails a friendly wink.

Tails was happy again, "You bet!" He gave himself a running start down the dirt road, started up his twin tails and projectiled himself into the skies. He waved goodbye to Sonic and Sonic waved goodbye back.

Sonic slowly started walking down the pavement again, then he sped up to a jog, and then to a run where he boosted himself towards his house with book in hand.


	2. Sonic gets captured

By the time Sonic got to his house, the sun was already starting to set and a cold breeze coming through. Sonic got a cold chill down his back as he stared down his house. Something didn't feel right. He walked towards his front door. The door made a creaking sound as the wind blew it open a crack. Sonic grabbed the door and opened it all the way to reveal his dark living room. He stepped through the door and turned the light switch to the on position, but the light bulb hanging from a string from the ceiling never came on.

"That's odd..." Sonic mumbled. He walked to the light bulb and inspected the wires inside the translucent bulb as he held the bulb in the palm of his hand. The wires were shot and unusable. He dropped the bulb and let it swing back and forth, "I guess I'll have to ask Tails for some more bulbs."

Sonic walked under an arched walkway and down the dark hallway. He used his hands to slide against the walls to feel where he was going. He touched the side of the doorway to his bathroom and felt relief. As he entered his bathroom, he tried the light switch in there and to his surprise, it worked. "Cool beans." Sonic commented. Peering into the mirror over the sink, Sonic inspected his face and picked his ear with his pinky. He needed to clean his ears out. He got out a box of cue tips and picked out one cue tip. When he picked a cue tip out of the box, he accidently knocked the box off the counter. Sonic bent over to pick up the box and he picked his ear with the cue tip at the same time. He bent back up and looked back in the mirror only to see in the reflection, a blue spiky metal figure behind him. It was Metal Sonic.

Sonic was about to turn around to face Metal until Metal grabbed Sonics head and threw him through the mirror over the sink. The wall collapsed around Sonic as he landed on the other side of it. Sonic groaned in pain as he watched Metal Sonic approach through the hole in the wall. Sonic slowly tried to stand up but he could only get to his knees. With slow breaths, Sonic started to ask questions, "What do you want this time Metal?"

Metal Sonic didn't respond but instead took Sonic by the neck and pinned him against the wall.

The wall behind Sonic cracked on impact but didn't break completely. Sonic looked at Metal's eyes as they disappeared and turned into a screen. The screen in Metal Sonic's eyes had on them "Eggman!" Sonic croaked with what air in his lungs he could let out through Metal Sonic's grip.

"Good evening Sonic, do you like my new Metal Sonic?" Robotnik asked tauntingly with his evil laugh, "I think this model may be my best and last one yet. To put it simply, it's perfected." he laughed again.

"What...do you want...Eggman?" Sonic asked almost out of breath.

Robotnik noticed Sonics' shortness of breath and loosened Metal Sonics' grip on Sonics' neck.

Sonic let out a big gasp and started coughing.

"I want you to participate in a new experiment I've started. It involves mind control." Robotnik explained, "And I figured that you would be the best patient to try it."

"I'll never cooperate with you…" Sonic sneered.

"I appreciate your honesty Sonic but you have no choice. Either you cooperate or Metal here will have to strangle you until your lungs collapse." Robotnik said with softness to his voice.

Sonic laughed softly "You can't kill me, you need me. If I died, how could you live in a world with no one to stop your evil plans…?"

Robotnik listened closely.

Sonic continued "…You couldn't, you'd go mad with nothing to do. You'd miss me, I know you would."

"Enough!" Robotnik ordered loudly.

A small syringe needle came out of Metal Sonics' left arm compartment. The syringe was filled with green liquid. Sonic cringed at the syringe. His eyes gazed back and forth at Robotniks' image in Metal Sonics' eyes and to the needle, "Come on doc, you know how I feel about physicals…" he gave a small chuckle and swallowed with shaky breaths. He couldn't hide the fear in his voice.

"I promise you won't feel a thing…" Robotnik made Metal Sonic stick the syringe into Sonics arm and pushed the green liquid into his arm until the needle was empty.

Sonic cringed as the needle pierced his skin but immediately went limp as the liquid went into his bloodstream.

Metal Sonic carried Sonic in its arms and crashed through the ceiling with its boosters lit under its feet. Metal Sonic flew into the night sky and towards ' secret base


	3. Operation Sonic

One by one, the ceiling lights turn on until the room is completely lit. Sonic lies on a cold hard table in the middle of the room with his arms and legs tied down. Sonic awakens with a slight headache. He slowly opens his eyes and looks around the room. The ceiling lights gave off a rather annoying buzzing sound and it got worse the more he looked into it. He closed his eyes and looked at the room again but without looking at the lights. He was in some sort of white tiled room from ceiling to floor. A granite counter rested in the corner and operating utensils lye on a separate table next to his table.

"What's…going on…?" Sonic still felt drugged from the shot. He was tired and confused all at once. Sonic heard footsteps clacking on the hard floor on the other side of the double doors behind him. The double doors swung open to reveal in white scrubs like a real doctor. His face mask unfortunately couldn't hide his long handle bar mustache that poked out of the sides. Sonic stared at Robotnik with his eyes that couldn't hold an angry look with the drugs going through his system, "Egg…man." He couldn't speak clearly.

moved the mask from his face and smiled at Sonic but Sonic laughed quietly to himself. Robotnik heard his chuckle, "What's so funny hedgehog?"

"It's nothing…" he swallowed "you were never a real doctor…yet you dress like one, heh."

"I've done my fair share of operations my boy." He picked up a pair of white rubber gloves and put them on one at a time. He let the gloves slap against his wrist when they were all the way on. The sound of the slapping rubber made Sonic wince. Robotnik noticed Sonics' wincing, "Scared?" Robotnik asked.

"Heh, I'm not afraid of anything Eggman." Sonic lied, he was getting nervous every time Robotnik picked up something or walked around. He had no way out of this. He didn't have the power of the werehog anymore, and he didn't have the chaos emeralds. The only thing he hoped for right now was that Robotnik put him to sleep before he did anything. He didn't want to witness the excruciating pain of what Robotnik might do.

"You're shaking Sonic…why?" Robotnik asked. At the moment, Robotnik felt like he had won a prize for seeing the fear come out of Sonic. This might be the best moments of Robotniks life.

Sonic didn't answer.

Robotnik walked around to Sonics' right side and bent down to get face to face, "You are afraid, aren't you?"

Sonic looked away.

"There's no need to be scared Sonic. I promise you it won't hurt a bit." Robotnik was telling the truth. He may have hated Sonic for foiling his plans. But there was a part of him that was still a caring human being. He smiled caringly and stood straight up. He walked over to the operating table to examine his tools.

After a long while, Sonic finally spoke again, "Will I be awake…?"

Robotnik looked up at Sonic, puzzled, "Hmm?"

"Will…I be awake when you operate." A tear escaped Sonics' eyes.

Robotnik suddenly felt bad for Sonic but he couldn't stop the operation. His plans were finally coming together. He couldn't afford to plan something else. "You'll be in a deep sleep Sonic, completely unaware of anything." He smiled reassuringly.

Sonic smiled too, but it went away fast. "Good…"

Robotnik takes a syringe and fills it with more green liquid in a jar from his other hand. He walks behind Sonic and places Sonic's hand in the palm of his. "One little prick..." Robotnik sticks Sonic with the needle in his neck and pushes the liquid out until it's empty. "And off you go." Robotnik takes the needle out.

Sonic starts to get tired again. Before he drifts off to sleep, he mumbles, "I'm sorry tails..." his vision gets blurry until it completely blackens. His head hits the table with a ding and falls into a deep sleep.


	4. The Chaos Emerald Truth

The next morning, Tails is working in his workshop. He stands at a wooden table with his computer on top of the table, typing on it. A green chaos emerald rests under a scanning device with humming; glowing rings keep it in place. "I don't understand..." tails mumbles. For weeks, Tails has been investigating the power of the chaos emeralds, as well as why Sonic is the only one who can use their energy to transform.

On his laptop, an image of Sonic is displayed on the screen. Tails starts a simulation of the chaos emeralds power, making the one chaos emerald equal six more. Tails knows it's risky but if he doesn't find out soon, he'll go mad.

A 3D DNA image is displayed next to Sonic's picture. When the chaos emerald powers up, Sonic's virtual DNA image turns bright gold. Tails stops the simulation and the DNA image turns back to normal, except when he looked at the strength and life force level; the strength decreased dramatically and his life force was also decreasing, only by a little.

"I can't believe this..." tails never knew, "The chaos emeralds are eating away at Sonic!" he totally forgot about the transformation investigation, and now the safety of his best friend is all that matters now."I have to tell him!" but before he could leave his workship, Sonic was already there.

"Hey buddy!" Sonic greeted.

Tails felt so relieved to see sonic. He grabbed the green chaos emerald from the scanner to show Sonic, "hey Sonic, I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"It has to do with the chaos emeralds!" Tails was so anxious to give Sonic the bad news. It was also an interesting find too. It felt to learn something new. "Sonic, these chaos emeralds are killing you!"

Sonic jumped back in surprise "What!" He yelled in question. "What do you mean? I thought they were doing good!"

"According to the data collected from the simulation I ran, they're not."

"What data show me." Sonic walked with tails to his computer.

Tails placed the chaos emerald in the scanner again and ran the simulation again with Sonic watching at his side, "You see Sonic," Tails began pointing at the readings, "When you use the chaos emeralds to turn supersonic, your blood cells are working twice as hard to reach that level of power."

Sonic looked at the readings with interest, "Wow, I had no idea..."

"Wait there's more." tails made the simulation come to an end to give the overall results, "As soon as the chaos emeralds use up all of their energy, it takes some of your energy too."

"Whoa, that explains why I feel so tired after I turn back from my super form..."

"Precisely." tails confirmed.

"So what are we suppose to do to stop Eggmans death machines, the ones that are too big for regular Sonic to stop?"

Tails shrugs, "I don't know, Sonic. But I think you should stop relying on the chaos emeralds for a while so we can come up with a solution."

The news sounded terrible to Sonic. It was going to be hard to stop Robotnik without the chaos emeralds. When he tried to think of other ways to stop Robotnik and his future giant death machines, his brain stopped to the seven chaos emeralds.

"This is going to be hard..." Sonic said to himself.

"Let's just hope Eggman won't be plotting anytime soon." Tails joked and giggled.

Sonic tried to laugh but only a small fake chuckle came through. Sonic was becoming nervous now. Without the emeralds, Sonic could only save the world from the little things Robotnik throws his way.

"Well I'm gonna go and tell knuckles the news." Tails wasn't too happy about giving away bad news bit it had to be done.

Tails exited the workship and started up the tornado plane, "I'll be back later, Sonic!" Tails flew off down the runway in the Tornado. Sonic waved farewell until Tails and the Tornado was out of sight.

Sonic turned back towards the workshop. Sonic noticed that Tails left the chaos emerald in the scanner, "What a stupid move." Sonic thought. He grabbed the chaos emerald from the scanner device, "I got what you asked for boss." Sonic said into a tiny earpiece he was wearing.

"Very good, come back to my lab and we'll begin preparations." Robotnik said on the other end of the microphone.

"I'm on my way..." and in one supersonic second later, he was gone.


	5. Knuckles shares his feelings

Tails was still flying in the Tornado when he was over Angel Island. He landed carefully on the dirt road near the master emerald shrine. Tails met knuckles at the stop of the shrine.

Knuckles was napping on the steps when Tails came along.

"Hey, Knuckles wake up I gotta talk to you." tails said getting impatient.

Knuckles slowly woke up and instantly remembered about the master emerald. He ran up the steps of the master emerald shrine to see if the master emerald was still there.

Tails followed knuckles up the steps.

When knuckles saw the master emerald in from of him, he calmed down.

Tails stood behind knuckles.

Knuckles didn't turn towards Tails. Instead, he took a seat on the top step, "What is it Tails?" knuckles asked without making eye contact.

"Tails took a seat next to knuckles and didn't hesitate on the news, "It's about the chaos emeralds."

Knuckles looked at Tails, worried, "Did Eggman take them again?"

"No." Tails replied.

"Oh..." knuckles mumbled. As long as Robotnik didn't have them, then he was worry free, "What's the news then?" knuckles asked uninterested.

"Well, earlier today I did some testing on a chaos emerald what it does to our bodies when we use its power. To put it frankly, the chaos emeralds are hurting us, they take some of our energy with it."

"I know." knuckles said coolly.

"You know?" tails asked kind of mad.

"Well yea, I do know more about chaos emeralds than you," he looked back at the master emerald, "Since I'm protecting the biggest one of them all."

"Why didn't you tell us, knuckles!" Tails stood up yelling angrily, "Do you know how many times Sonic has used those chaos emeralds to defeat Eggman?"

Knuckles looked at Tails, not effected by his angry tone, "Yes I do know, Tails." he

"Do you not care that he's slowly dying?"

"I care a lot, Tails." Knuckles was getting a little tense with all of these accusations that Tails was throwing at him.

"Then why don't you stop him from using them!"

Knuckles stood up and got face to face with Tails, "Because it's not my job to protect him!" He turned away and walked towards the master emerald, "My job is to protect the master emerald, no one else..."

"But we're your friends, knuckles..." Tails said quietly and a little offended.

"It doesn't feel like it sometimes..." Knuckles said.

"What do you mean?" Tails asked

Knuckles didn't look at Tails when he spoke. He closed his eyes for a long time sometimes, "When the planet broke apart and Sonic was a werewolf, were was I?"

Tails didn't say anything, he listened.

"When Eggman made a space theme park with those wisp things, where was I?"

"Knuckles, I didn't know..." Tails started to say.

"You didn't know what? That I wanted to come and help?" Knuckles walked over to tails, "you say I'm your friend, but you guys never seek my help anymore." He walked around flailing his arms out in anger, "A little action here and there would be nice if you guys would ask me to come along for god sakes!"

"Knuckles, I'm sorry. I promise you can come along when Eggman tries to rule the world again."

Knuckles chuckled sarcastically, "No no, don't promise anything, Tails, alright? I won't be surprised if I don't get word on your next adventure. I'm just gonna be stuck here on this stupid pedestal for the rest of my pathetic life." Knuckles finally plopped down next to the Master emerald in silence.

Tails walked over to knuckles slowly and sat down by his side, "Knuckles, I'm truly sorry. We all just assumed you were too busy to go anywhere."

"Well I was, to be honest. All those days when I was away from the Master emerald, I was scared. I was scared that it would be destroyed or taken away by Eggman. I guess I'm just being some sort of hypocrite." Knuckles chuckled quietly.

Tails smiled at Knuckles laughed, "Well I promise you that Sonic and I will come by before we take off to stop Eggman and ask if you want to come with us."

Knuckles looked at Tails with a smirk, "Sounds like a plan."

"It sure does." Tails said.


	6. Eggman's plans

Back at Robotniks base, Sonic had just passed through the automatic sliding door. Robotnik was just sitting in his throne enjoying the view of the ocean through the looking glass.

Sonic walked up the stairs to Robotniks throne where he presented the Chaos emerald to him, "I have returned with the Chaos emerald my master." Sonic kneeled before Robotnik as he turned around in his throne and took the Chaos emerald from Sonic's hand.

"Good job, Sonic, you have done well." Robotnik placed the Chaos emerald inside a Chaos emerald case with seven individual holes for all of the emeralds. The case slid its door closed automatically when the emerald was locked in. Robotnik gestured for Sonic to rise from his kneeling position.

Sonic stood up and awaited further orders.

Robotnik pushed a button on his throne that made a round platform rise from the middle of the lab at the bottom of the stairs. The platform had railings and a little surprise for Sonic, "There's no need for you at the moment my dear hedgehog, please escape to your cell until told otherwise."

Sonic did as he was told. He walked down the stairs and stepped on the round platform. When he held onto the railings, leather straps opened through a tiny door of the railings and held his wrists in place so he couldn't escape. He didn't freak out of course until Robotnik pushed another button on a remote that controlled Sonic's mind. Sonic was now his normal self. He looked around and saw his hands strapped down to the railings, "What happened, what did you make me do?"

Robotnik showed Sonic the chaos emerald from his chair, "You did my biddings my little guinea pig." he laughed.

"You won't get away with this Eggman." Sonic threatened with teeth clenching.

"I already have." Robotnik pressed a button on his throne that made the round platform go down.

Sonic tried to break free of the leather straps but it was useless. The platform was now too low for Sonic to see Robotnik. A door closed above him that closed the gap between him and the lab above. The platform stopped and Sonic was now in a dark jail cell where he was trapped until Robotnik needed him again.

Robotnik sat in his throne again overlooking the ocean with his hands cupped together, "I must stay in cover. I cannot send him to look for chaos emeralds like this every second of every day. I have to do it at certain times so he won't draw suspicion from his friends."


	7. The investigation of Sonic

Tails returned from Angel Island to his workshop. As he stepped in he wondered where Sonic disappeared to. He looked at the scanner that used to have the Chaos emerald in it. Tails ran to the scanner to make sure he wasn't just imagining things. He looked around the workshop; He looked in drawers in desks, under desks, he even looked in his plane to see if he accidently took it with him when he fled to Angel Island.

"It's really gone, oh no!" Tails cried out. He got back in his plane that was still running, "I have to tell knuckles about this!" He fled off down the runway once again to Angel Island. Once he got to Angel Island he saw Knuckles didn't move an inch from the Master Emerald shrine.

Knuckles heard Tails coming by again and ran to meet him at the landing point of the Tornado.

Tails kept the Tornado running, "Knuckles, a chaos emerald is missing!"

"No way! Where'd you have it last?" Knuckles quickly asked.

"I left it at my workshop before I came to meet you before, but now it's gone."

"Smooth move, you don't just leave those things lying around like that, you know Eggman lives on the same planet we do you know!"

"There's no time, come on!" Tails yelled.

"Wait a minute, Tails. Who knows, maybe Sonic took it for safe keeping." Knuckles assumed.

"You think?" Tails said trying to calm down.

"You wanna go check his house?" Knuckles asked.

"Sure, are you coming?" Tails asked.

Knuckles looked back at the master emerald.

"We'll be back in time, don't worry." Tails said.

Knuckles hesitated, "...okay, let's make it quick." Knuckles hopped into the tornado and Tails flew off the Island and into the air.

Tails landed in front of Sonic's house. He turned off the tornado and both tails and knuckles hopped out of the plane. Tails and knuckles approached the house. Tails pushed the already cracked open door all the way open until it bumped into the wall.

"Hello!" Tails called for Sonic but no one answered. The inside of the house was dark except for the sunshine coming through the windows. The sunshine still wasn't enough to see where they were walking. Knuckles walked ahead of Tails and looked for a light switch.

"It's over here, knuckles" Tails turned the light switch to the on position but no light was visible. Knuckles kept walking around the room trying not to trip over anything when his head bumped into something. The object kept bumping into his head until Knuckles caught it. He felt it and recognized the shape, "the light bulb is broken apparently."

"Well bring it over to the light." Tails meant the sun shining through the window.

Knuckles did just that and Tails examined the translucent light bulb and the wires inside of it. One of the wires inside of the bulb wasn't attached to the other wires and it was rolling around the walls of the bulb, "Yep, the bulb is shot." He let go of the bulb and it again hit Knuckles in the face as it swung back from the ceiling line it was attached to.

"Gah, stupid...bulb" Knuckles grabbed the bulb and steadied it at the center of the room so it wouldn't swing anymore.

"Lets keep looking." Tails said as he walked deeper into the house.

Knuckles followed behind Tails.

"Sonic, are you in here?" Tails called for him again. Still there was no answer.

"Maybe he's sleeping." Knuckles guessed.

"Maybe..." Tails then saw a light at the end of a hallway. Sonic's bathroom was lit up. Tails ran towards the bathroom and Knuckles followed behind. Once they entered the bathroom, they witnessed something shocking; the sink and the wall behind it was broken to pieces as if someone has been thrown or fallen into it. A big gaping hole was now in its place and inside of the hole you could see on the other side, Sonic's room.

"What the heck happened here?" Tails loudly questioned in shock.

"Either Sonic's going crazy or someone was here with him..." Knuckles thought out loud.

"Maybe one of Eggmans robots?" Tails asked

"Maybe..." Knuckles looked through the gaping hole and saw on the other side of Sonic's wall was a crack in it as if someone was smashed against it, "lets check out his room, Tails."

Tails followed Knuckles as they jogged into Sonic's room. The room was lit up by the sunshine outside a window. Knuckles examined the crack in the wall by kneeling down in front of it. The crack was as big as a body, "Looks like Sonic was in some kind of struggle." Knuckles assumed.

"It couldn't be one of the smaller badniks could it?" Tails wondered.

"No, this thing was bigger than him but small enough to fit in the house."

"Who could it be then?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, Tails." Knuckles said kind of annoyed at Tails questioning.

"Sorry." Tails apologized.

"Anyways...it seems like we don't have many leads." Knuckles stood up and was about to walk away until he stepped on something that made a crunching sound. He lifted his foot up and saw a blue metal piece with a picture on it.

Tails picked up the blue metal piece and took in into the better lit up area of the room near the sunlight, "Hey, Knuckles come look at this."

Knuckles walked to Tails side, "What is it?"

Tails pointed towards the side of the piece with the picture on it. The picture was a signature of Eggmans with his face on it, "I think we have our lead Knuckles."

"Yes we do, come on lets go get that Egghead." Knuckles was about to run out of the room until Tails stopped him.

"Wait, Knuckles. We can't just break into Eggmans base and expect him to tell us what we want to know." Tails said.

Knuckles stood near the door way, "I suppose you have a better plan?"

"Not yet, but I'll think of one. In the meantime," Tails walked pass Knuckles and turned toward him, "Try not to go in there until I say so."

Knuckles chuckled, "Well well, Mr. Prowers' the big boss now huh?"

Tails laughed too, "I think you'd be safer with my plans knucklehead."

"Whatever you say."

Tails held on to the blue metal piece as he and Knuckles took off in the tornado and back towards Tails workshop to think up a plan.


	8. Interrogation of Sonic

Meanwhile, at Tails workshop, Tails was trying to figure out a plan with some blueprints that lay on the table in front of him. He stole the prints from Robotniks base a long time ago. He didn't know or not if the prints were out of date or if Robotniks base had changed all that much.

Knuckles stood on the other side of the table and watched as Tails formulated a plan, "So what do you have so far?"

"Well, as far as I know, we're going to need some more people for this." Tails thought out loud.

Knuckles walked over to Tails side to look at the blue prints with him, "Why's that?"

"You see here," Tails pointed to some inner hallways and the lines making the hallway "There's going to be a lot of security cameras and lasers attached to them."

"So? How many do you think there are in that one hallway?" Knuckles asked not seeing the sense of danger Tails was explaining.

"About 30 or 50..." Tails tried to calculate in his head slowly.

"Oh...I get it now."

"Exactly, with me and you going in there won't be enough. We can't take out over 50 laser cameras by ourselves."

"I bet Sonic could." Knuckles stated.

"I bet he could too...Speaking of Sonic, we need to find him so he can help us with this plan."

"How about you look behind you." speak of the devil; Sonic was right behind them with a welcoming smile on his face.

Tails had a big smile on his face too, relieved to find Sonic alive. He ran over to Sonic and gave him a hug while Sonic ruffled the fur on Tail's head.

Knuckles walked over to Sonic and patted him on the back with a smile across his face.

"It's like you guys haven't seen me in forever. What's going on?" Sonic asked.

Tails backed up to tell Sonic how they went to his house to find his bathroom all smashed to bits.

"Oh that..." Sonic was nervous, even though it wasn't their Sonic they were talking to. It was Eggmans minion who was in control at the moment, "An earthquake...yeah that's what happened. I was asleep at the time when it happened this morning so I don't know how my bathroom got to be that way." Sonic chuckled nervously.

"How do you explain the dent on your bedroom wall then?" Knuckles asked accusingly.

"I don't know...I'm a very heavy sleeper."

Tails could see some sweat running down the side of Sonic's face, "Are you feeling alright, Sonic?"

Sonic laughed, "I've never felt better, and why do you ask?"

Tails looked deep into Sonic's eyes and he thought he saw an image of Sonic in his pupils screaming for help. Tails shook his head to relieve the images he saw from his mind, "No reason, I'm just being a little worrisome about you. You know how I get." He smiled.

"Yea I know, buddy." Sonic said.

Knuckles almost forgot what tails forgot to mention. He went ahead and did it before the question was gone from his memory, "You know the chaos emerald is gone don't you, Sonic?"

Sonic looked from Knuckles to Tails. Back and forth feeling nervous again, "No I didn't. Where'd you last see it?"

"Well Tails here..." Tails interrupted.

"It was in the scanner when I showed you those results of the chaos emeralds power, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I remember...I went for a run when you left to see knuckles."

"Oh...okay then." Tails said.

Knuckles paid close attention to Sonic's reactions. He noticed Sonic's lips twitching as if he wanted to say something but he kept changing his mind. He could of swore he heard Sonic whisper for help but just like tails, Knuckles shook his head to relieve the images that might've not been real.

"So what were you guys looking at before I rudely interrupted?" Sonic stepped passed the guys as if the previous conversations never happened. He bent over the blue prints once he saw them. Robotnik could see through Sonic's eyes from the monitor from his base. When Robotnik saw the blue prints to his base on the table, he began giving Sonic orders.

"You need to destroy those blueprints, Sonic. Not now, wait until the coast is clear, take it and run away." Robotnik commanded.

"Yes, my master." Sonic whispered.

"What'd you say?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic met Knuckles eyes and smiled like he didn't know what Knuckles was talking about, "I didn't say anything. You hearing voices again Knuckles?" Sonic span his finger toward his own head to say Knuckles was crazy.

Tails walked to Sonic's side and explained why they needed the blueprints and he also showed Sonic the blue metal piece they found at Sonic's house.

"I wonder what it belongs to..." Sonic said about the blue metal piece.

"Whatever it is, It's belongs to Eggman and we want to find out what he's up to. But we need more people for this."

"Guys, there's no need to go to Eggmans base, I don't think he's up to anything." Sonic said walking away from the table and towards the open area outside of the workshop.

"You see an Eggman logo in your house and you don't want to investigate?" Knuckles couldn't believe what he was hearing. Where did his buddy go?

"No, Knuckles I don't want to investigate because you know what that leads to? It leads to fighting and people getting hurt and I don't want that to happen to you guys." Sonic said turning around.

"If we have more people, then we'll be just fine. I'm sure the Chaotix, Amy, Rouge, and all of our other friends can help. It'll be an even match and it'll be all over in no time" Tails explained like he was absolutely positive they were going to win.

"Sorry guys, I don't think it'll be that easy. And plus I'm sick of fighting now. Maybe if we leave Eggman alone, everything will be alright." Sonic said.

Knuckles walked over to Sonic with disbelief on his face, "What are you saying, Sonic!" He shook Sonic with hands on both of his shoulders, "You know Eggman is not going to leave us alone, He wants to rule the world for god's sakes. If we don't do something, He's going to make our lives a living nightmare!"

Sonic peeled Knuckles hand off his shoulder, "And maybe he won't." He looked at Knuckles with seriousness in his eyes, "We need to wait this out, and if nothing happens. Then I'll happily accept your apologies for shaking me like a British nanny." Sonic then began walking out of the workshop without a goodbye.

Tails ran after him. When Tails stepped in front of Sonic, Sonic stopped.

"Wait." Tails begged.

"What is it?" Sonic wasn't in the mood to talk, but he would never be mean to Tails. Even the evil side controlling him wasn't going to be mean.

"I wanna give you something before you go. Stay here for a second?" Tails asked nicely.

Sonic obeyed and watched as Tails went back to the workshop to fetch the item.

Tails pulled a drawer out from under his computer desk on the other side of the workshop and obtained a flower Cream had given Tails at her Birthday party. He quickly pulled another item out; a little computer chip and he put it inside of the stem to keep it hidden.

Sonic watched Tails run back to him.

Tails handed him the flower, "Cream wanted me to give this to you since you didn't show at her birthday party."

Something inside Sonic made him feel sad. The real sonic trapped inside was trying to come out when a tiny tear surfaced in his eye. The evil Sonic wiped it away and took the flower from Tails, "Tell her I said thanks. I'll see you guys later."

"See ya!" Tails waved goodbye as Sonic sped off leaving a trail of dusting floating in the air.

Knuckles came by Tails side looking confused, "What was that for?" he asked.

"You'll see..."


	9. The Steak Out

The sun had set when being silent as they could; Tails and Knuckles followed Sonic to wherever he keeps disappearing to without word. Tails brought along a device that shows where Sonic is at by a tiny green dot on a screen covered with a grid. The tiny computer chip Tails hid within the flower he gave Sonic is connected to this Sonic tracking device.

Tails and Knuckles stopped and lay on top of a cliff where the device shows Sonic slowing down below them in a canyon. Knuckles was getting tired of walking around when they had a perfectly good plane back at Tails workshop.

"Why didn't we take the Tornado, Tails?" Knuckles asked exhausted.

"Because we're not trying to get caught, and the tornado would blow our cover with its loud engine."

"Right..." Knuckles didn't care how loud the engine was; he still thought walking was a waste of time.

Sonic's dot on the tracking device was still slowing down, "This isn't like Sonic to be slowing down." Tails said quietly to himself.

"You got a point, Tails." Knuckles watched the tracking device with Tails, "What's going on here?" Knuckles noticed the dot wasn't even moving anymore. He put his hand in Tails shoulder bag that he had brought with him also and pulled out some binoculars. He put his eyes against the looking holes and tried to find Sonic in the shadows of the night. Knuckles froze his view on a dark blue figure, it's probably Sonic.

"I think I found him." Knuckles confirmed passing the binoculars to Tails and pointing to the spot he saw Sonic, "I think he's by those rocks."

Tails took the binoculars and looked at the spot Knuckles was pointing at. When the binoculars view was settled on a dark blue figure he confirmed it as well, "I see him. I wonder what he's doing."

Sonic was just standing there with his head tilted down and his eyes wandering. He focused all of his attention on nearby noises. He sensed someone was following him. His ear twitched when he heard something moving in the grass close to him.

Tails kept his eyes on Sonic when Sonic turned his head and looked at where Tails was. Tails put the binoculars down and told Knuckles to duck as Tails did.

"You think he saw us?" Knuckles asked.

"I hope not." Tails replied nervously.

Sonic kept looking at that spot. When nobody was seen, he sped off leaving dust in his trails.

Tails looked at his tracking device again and saw the dot moving incredibly fast, "He's on the move, lets go." Tails said. He got up and decided to give Knuckles a break and fly while he carried Knuckles.

"Thanks a lot." Knuckles held on to Tail's hand with one as he held the tracking device in the other. Tails spun his twin tails and floated off the ground with Knuckles hanging on below.

Tails got tired flying for half an hour while following Sonic. They stood on top another cliff of the canyon. Sonic was slowing down again and possibly stopping for another time.

"Why is he stopping?" Knuckles asked irritatingly confused.

"He probably senses us." Tails assumed.

"Then why doesn't he come over to us?"

"Maybe he doesn't know it's us, or maybe he's not entirely sure."

"Like that makes any sense." Knuckles said sarcastically.

Tails got out the binoculars again and zoomed in on Sonic. He noticed something in Sonic's hand that he didn't notice before. A big piece of paper was in his right hand.

"What do you see? Knuckles asked.

"He's holding some sort of big paper." Tails confirmed.

Sonic then turned his head toward them again. Before Knuckles and Tails could hide, something big hit the ground behind them and shaking it all around them.

Knuckles turned around baring his knuckles and ready to fight. When he noticed who it was, he almost changed his mind until he built up the courage to be brave.

Mecha Sonic stared down at Tails and Knuckles, "You will come with me." Mecha Sonic said in his metallic voice.

"In your dreams!" Knuckles powered up his punched and let it rip into Mecha Sonic's stomach. Little did Knuckles know that Mecha had an invisible electric force field around him that electrocutes anyone who tries to attack him in hand to hand combat. Knuckles feels the electric current running through his body as he gets electrocuted, His voice bouncing around as he screams in pain.

"Knuckles!" Tails tried to pull Knuckles out of Mecha's electric force field but the electric energy passed on from Knuckles to Tails making them both get electrocuted together.

When the electrocution was over, Tails and Knuckles fell backwards off of the cliff nearly unconscious. Before they could hit the ground, Mecha was below them in a second and caught them in midair. Mecha landed next to regular Sonic. Mecha handed Sonic, Tails. Sonic cradled Tails in his arms and Mecha held Knuckles.

Sonic looked down at Tails electrocuted body and the small burns in his fur and inside he hated himself. But of course the evil side took over and said to Mecha, "Let's go."

Mecha nodded and blasted off in the air while Sonic boosted down the dirt road of the canyon.

Tails wasn't unconscious yet, but he was feeling weak. His eyes were half open when he saw Sonic in his sights above him. He could feel the wind in his hair and he knew they were running really fast somewhere. Sonic got blurry in Tails eyes as they closed and Tails passed out.


	10. Two for the price of one

Slowly, Tails opens his eyes. His vision is in doubles when he looks around. He was placed on a cold, hard table in an unknown room. The lights above him kept him from opening his eyes too wide. Tails could only squint at the moment.

"Good evening, fox boy." Robotnik's voice echoed in Tails ears. He couldn't see Robotnik because he was too dazed to turn his head.

"wha..." Tails could hardly speak. His head felt so heavy that it turned to his left. When his head turned, he saw another table with Knuckles strapped down onto it, "Knu...ckles." Unfortunately Knuckles was still unconscious so Tail's call of names was useless.

"It seems you're little game of cat and mouse backfired." Robotnik said, "But no worries, you're safe and sound in my laboratory." Robotnik laughed.

Tails began to feel a lot more sober and the ringing in his ears were starting to go away. He was getting used to the lights above him. Tails was going to rub his eyes until he realized he was strapped down to his table as well. Looking at his tied down arms and legs, Tails tried his best to break free, but the straps were too strong.

"What're you up to Eggman?" Tails asked lifting his head to see Robotnik at the foot of his table staring down at Tails.

"Me? Nothing to worry your little head over .I'm simply having your friend Sonic run some errands for me. No pun intended, of course." Robotnik pulled out a tiny computer chip he kept in his hand the whole time, "I must say I'm impressed with your little tracking device." Robotnik said tossing it in the air and catching it over and over again.

"What have you done with Sonic?" Tails screamed making Knuckles toss in his unconsciousness until he awoke.

Knuckles opened his eyes and freaked out much quicker than Tails did, "Where the heck am I!" Knuckles screamed.

Robotnik walked over to Knuckles table and stood by his side, "Ah, it seems you've come to also my little echidna."

"Let me out..." Knuckles whispered with his teeth clenched in anger, "Let me out!" He screamed once more, pulling at the straps that trapped him.

"Oh my," Robotnik raised his arms as to pretend he was scared, "I think you better calm yourself or else I won't release you."

"You weren't going to anyways." Tails said.

"Quite right, Tails." Robotnik walked over to tails side and ruffled his fur up on top of his head, "Aren't you a smart little fox." he chuckled deeply and walked to the far wall and leaned on it.

"Where is Sonic you big oaf?" Tails asked.

"He's taking a break in his little cell, I don't need him at the moment but when I do, I'll give him his orders."

"What are you making him do?" Tails asked.

"Well now that the secret is out I might as well tell you. I was using him to get the chaos emeralds from under your little noses. He was my spy per say."

Tails gasped, "the chaos emerald from my workshop..."

"That's right, Sonic brung it to me. It seems like you can't even trust your best friends anymore." he chuckled deeply again.

"That wasn't Sonic though, it couldn't be..." Tails mumbled.

"Oh, but it is. He told me he's changing teams. He says he wants to work for me now."

"That's a lie!" Knuckles yelled accusingly.

"Yeah! Sonic would never join you!" Tails joined in the yelling.

"Maybe later I'll prove it to you. But for now, I need some information about the Chaos emeralds."

"We'll never tell you!" Tails taunted.

"I suggest you spill the beans now or else I'll be forced to turn you into my personal little slaves." Robotnik pointed to the operating tools on a little metal tray next to Knuckle's and Tail's tables.

Tail's eyes wander as he thinks about what to do, "Should I tell him or should I just let him..." Tail's face lit up with a plan.

Knuckles saw Tail's face and he was scared that he was actually going to tell Robotnik where the chaos emeralds are, "Don't do it, Tails." Knuckles whispered.

"Alright, Eggman I'll tell you." Tails put on a sad face even though it was fake.

"Tails, don't!" Knuckles pleaded.

"Very wise, Tails." Robotnik complimented.

"there's three emeralds at the mystic cave, two at Green Hill, and the last one is in uhhhh...secret..safe at my house." It was hard to make up locations for the Emeralds, and he hoped that he didn't look too suspicious.

Knuckles was confused and that's when he knew what Tails was doing. He had a smile on his face, it was kind of funny to him.

"Very good." Robotnik began to leave the laboratory. He pushed the swinging doors open and when the doors were about to close, Robotnik stuck his head through one of the doors to say, "by the way, If the emeralds are not there, Then you'll suffer the consequences." he left the room with his laughter echoing throughout the room.

When Knuckles and Tails were all alone, Knuckles was the first to speak, "So do you have a plan?" Asking Tails turning his head at an uncomfortable angle to see Tails.

Tails looked around the laboratory as much as he could and his eyes lastly looked at the utensils on the metal plate next to his table, "I got it!"

"Tell me." Knuckles said.

"All I got...to do.." Tails tried to reach for the scalpel on the metal plate with his hand that was constricted by the straps, "Is get this...stupid...knife..." He got a hold of the rolling platform the plate was sitting upon and pulled it slowly towards him, "Almost got it..." he mumbled to himself feeling anxious.

"You can do it, Tails." Knuckles encouraged Tails.

The rolling platform bumped against Tail's table which made the plate of operating utensils fall off the platform and the utensils to slip off the plate, "No you don't!" Tails caught the scalpel in mid-air, "Yes!"

"Way to go!" Knuckles cheered.

Tails rotated the scalpel so the sharp end was pointed towards the straps. It seemed as though the knife was too short to reach the straps, "I can't reach it, Knuckles."

"Stretch, Tails, come on."

Tails moved the handle of the knife higher in his finger tips. The knife barely touched the straps, "It's barely touching."

"Crap!" Knuckles cursed.

Tails tried his best to cut the straps and he could only cut a little bit and that's when he had another idea, "Maybe if I just cut a little bit, I could rip the straps in half by pushing against them."

"Good idea."

Tails cut as much as he could, then he pushed against the straps as hard as he could until the straps were making a ripping sound, "It's doing it." The strap to his knife arm ripped open and his arm was free to move, "Onto the next one." Tails did the same thing until that arm was free, then he sat up stretching out his back, "These tables aren't as comfortable as you would think."

"No duh." Knuckles commented.

Tails leaned over to the straps constricting his legs and cut those loose. He jumped onto the floor, "Free at last."

"Good for you, now come help me out." Knuckles said.

Tails began cutting the straps to Knuckles arms when they heard footsteps coming down the hallway on the other side of the swinging doors, "Hurry up..." Knuckles said nervously.

Tails cut the straps constricting Knuckles legs as quick as he could.

One of Robotnik's robot assistants passed through the doors to find Tails and Knuckles gone, "Hostages have escaped!" The robot kept repeating the same line as it moved out of the room.

Knuckles and tails were actually hiding behind the tables they were once tied down to, "That was a close one huh, Knuckles?"

"Got that right." Knuckles stood up halfway to look through the round windows of the swinging doors. He could see the hallway was empty, "Come on, let's go." Knuckles stood up and grabbed Tails arm to follow him.


	11. The Escape

Knuckles busts through the double swinging doors with Tails following behind him. They stop at a corner. Knuckles peeks around the corner to see if anyone was coming down the hallway. No one was coming so he turns to Tails and says, "The coast is clear, lets go." Knuckles turns the corner and runs down the hallway to another corner where he stops. He looks down that hallway and notices surveillance cameras oscillating near the ceilings. He looks further down and finds a dozen more cameras, "I don't think your blueprints were outdated, Tails."

Tails peeks around the corner as well to see the cameras, "There's no way we'll make it through there."

"The lasers..." Knuckles remembered.

"Yeah, if we tried to run through all of those, we'd be blasted to bits in no time."

"I guess we'll have to find an alternative route then." Knuckles suggested as he backed away from the corner and leaned against the wall.

Tails tried to remember the passage ways from his blueprints of Robotnik's base. His face glowed with an idea, "I know a way, follow me." Tails ran and Knuckles followed him down the hallway behind them through another set of double swinging doors, "There should be a ventilation system somewhere along the walls of this hallway."

Tails was about to pass by another hallway ahead of them when Knuckles pulled him back, "Hold on, I think I hear something." Knuckles said. Knuckles and Tails hid behind another corner. Knuckles listened to hear running footsteps headed their way.

As they stood there, Tails saw right next to his feet, a vent, "Knuckles, I found it." He whispered and pointed to the vent.

"Hurry up and pull it out." Knuckles rushed Tails.

Tails got on his knees and tried to pull the vent out to realize that it was screwed in by the corners, "No good, Knuckles. It's screwed in."

"Let me have a go at it." Knuckles insisted. He got on his knees and punched the vent until it was broken enough to pull out, "That did it." Knuckles smirked at his own genius.

"Lets go." Tails crawled into the ventilation system with Knuckles right behind him. Robotnik could be heard running down the hall and Knuckles feet were still sticking out of the vent and into the hallway.

"Hurry up Tails, crawl faster!" Knuckles whispered anxiously.

By the time Robotnik passed down their hallway, the vent cover was placed back on the wall (poorly) and Knuckles and Tails were safely hidden in the ventilation system.

"That was another close one." Knuckles said. Their voices echoed through the ventilation shaft, "Where do we go from here, do you remember?" Knuckles asked Tails.

"As much as I can remember, I believe we're on the 3rd floor of Eggmans base. So what we want to do, is find a way down from here." Tails explained.

"Good plan..." Knuckles said with sarcasm.

The ventilation shaft was pretty dark except for the lights that the hallway gave them through every vent cover they passed. They came upon a long ventilation shaft with no light support so they couldn't see where they were going.

"We could really use some light in here." Knuckles said.

"No kidding, It's pitch black in here."

"Hey, stop kicking my head!" Knuckles yelled.

"Oh, sorry Knuckles, I didn't think you were that close."

"Well I am."

They weren't getting closer to the end of the shaft anytime soon.

"How much longer?" Knuckles impatiently asked.

"I think we should be there shortlYYYYYY!" Tails suddenly fell down a hole he couldn't see. His voice echoed as he continued to scream and fall down a ventilation shaft that went downwards.

"Tails!" Knuckles couldn't feel Tail's shoes in front of him, he continued to crawl until he fell down the same hole and screamed as he slid down it.


	12. Sonic Friend or Foe

Tails slid down the ventilation shaft until it came to an end when he fell out and onto a hard granite floor with his butt, "That hurt..." Tails stood and rubbed his hurting butt. Tails looked around the room and it was dark, but not too dark. He could see green vines coming out of the metallic walls and old computers that looked to be out of date and not working.

Knuckles screams could be heard coming from the vent shaft above Tails. He was sliding on his stomach when he came out of the shaft and tackled Tails by accident.

Tails fell down and moaned in pain, "Come on, I've already been hurt once!" Tails complained.

Knuckles stood up as did Tails, "What is this place?" he asked while looking around the dim room.

"I don't know, but I think we went farther down than we should've." Tails said.

Moaning could be heard coming from behind them.

"Who's that?" Knuckles turned toward the noise. He was creeped out by the noises.

Tails turned with Knuckles and walked toward it. He kept his hands in front of him just in case he ran into anything in the dark. He eventually touched bars, like a jail cell of some sort. He heard someone gasp behind the bars, "Hello?" Tails called out.

"Who's there?" The other voice questioned with fear.

"Don't be afraid, my name is Tails and I'm here with a friend called Knuckles and we're..."

The other voice interrupted, "Tails, is that really you?" sounding anxious.

"Do I know you?" Tails asked. He couldn't see the other person on the other side. The jail cell was completely dark.

"It's Sonic, Tails!"

"Sonic?" Tails was almost giddy to find him until Knuckles budded in.

"Don't believe him, Tails. Remember, the Sonic we know is long gone."

"What are you talking about, buddy? it's really me." Sonic tried to convince.

"That's a lie, Eggman already told us about your changing sides." Knuckles accused angrily.

"I didn't change sides, you have it all wrong!" Sonic said getting angry.

"Can you say it to my face without as much as sweating or getting nervous?"

"If I could I would." Sonic said matter of factly.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles said still standing guard.

"I mean I could if I wasn't tied down." Sonic said moving around and making rattling noises with the straps that held him against his will.

"So now you're trying to make us feel bad for you so we can save you." Knuckles scoffed, "You'll probably take us to Eggman the first chance you get, you imposter."

Tails wasn't standing next to Knuckles anymore, instead he went to find a flash light or some device that makes light. He went through drawers and cabinets until his hand bumped into something that felt long and round. He picked it up and felt around the end. the end felt like glass like a flash light and he also felt around the sides until he felt a switch, "Got it." he said to himself. He turned the switch to the on position but it didn't emanate light through the glass end. He hit it a few times until it finally blinked and emanated a ray of golden light.

Tails waved the flashlight around towards the bickering of Sonic and Knuckles and walked over there again.

Knuckles was blinded by the light that Tails pointed after them, "Gah, a little warning next time." Knuckles complained.

Tails pointed the flashlight in the jail cell and saw Sonic on a metal platform with his arms tied down against the metal railings, "oh my god, What'd they do to you?"

"Eggman is controlling me, Tails. He put something in my head that controls my every movement, I have no control." Sonic was on the verge of tears and it looked like he had been crying already, his eyes were red and you could see some wetness of tears drying up on his cheek.

"We have to get you out of here." Tails said.

"Don't...not yet at least." Sonic said.

"Why not?"

"If you get me out of here, Eggman will still have control over me. We have to get the thing that controls me."

"What could that be?" Tails wondered out loud.

As Knuckles listened to their conversation. He was actually starting to believe that this could be the real Sonic, seeing his tear stained face and the redness of his eyes.

"It's some sort of remote that he keeps next to his throne. His throne room is right above us." As soon as Sonic said that, the platform he stood on started to vibrate and turn on. The ceiling opened up letting in a bright light.

"What's going on?" Tails asked confused.

"Eggman's going to use me again, you guys need to escape!."

"Where do we need to go?" Tails asked.

Sonic's head was almost cutoff by the ceiling hole as he elevated upwards, "There should be a back exit through those doors." He talked about the doors exiting this Jail room, "Keep going and don't stop!" He was now elevated all the way up to Robotnik's throne room. The hole closed and the cell was pitch black again.

"Come on lets go!" Knuckles grabbed Tails and ran to the Jail room exit doors.

Tails looked back towards the cell. He didn't want to leave Sonic behind. He felt like he was betraying his best friend.

When they went through the back exit doors, they exited to a dark alley way. On both sides they could see buildings and spotlights circling the sky. They must be in Robotnik Land.

"Let's go this way." Knuckles ran out of the alley way but stopped when he noticed that Tails wasn't following.

Tails stood there in deep thought, thinking if he should run or save Sonic.

"Come on Tails, we have to hurry!" Knuckles shouted

"We can't just leave him here, Knuckles!" Tails shouted back gesturing towards the building.

Knuckles ran back to Tails and put his hands on Tail's shoulders, "I know how you feel, but I think Sonic would want us to go. Our safety means a lot to him, it would make him happy don't you think?"

Tails hesitated. He didn't want to admit it but Knuckles was probably right but leaving Sonic still didn't feel right. He sucked it up, nodded and with little effort he said, "you're right, lets go."

"Alright, lets get the heck out of this dump." Knuckles took Tail's arm and pulled him along.

Along the way, Tails still felt bad for leaving Sonic. He would find some way to get Sonic out of there no matter how long it takes. He just hopes Sonic is still alive when he figures out this plan. Tails could hear Robotnik's voice in the distance, "Find them!" and Tails ran ahead of Knuckles making him having to follow Tails.


	13. A dream come true?

To Amy rose, the night seemed to be slipping away as her mind raced, thinking about Sonic. She could hardly sleep. She lay in her bed and thought if she kept her eyes closed that she would automatically drift off into a dream but that was not the case. Her eyes opened and stared at the ceiling above her. He talked to herself while she hugged her blanket to her breasts, "should I give up?" She questioned herself, "Should I just admit that he'll never be my soul mate?"

Amy sat up in her bed revealing her pink night gown she wore when she sleeps at night. The blankets covered her from the waist down. She took her pillow and hugged it close to her chest now, "We're the only hedgehogs as far as I know, other than Shadow and Silver. I can't love another creature." The moonlight coming through the window at the other end of her room made her eyes shine like diamonds, "maybe love is just a word, and maybe it doesn't even exist."

Something passed through the moonlight quickly making a shadow pass over her face. Amy looked up through the window from her bed, "What was that?" she wondered. Amy pulled the blanket off of her and walked barefoot to her window and opened her window by pushing it outwards. The two windows were pulled open farther by the wind until it hit the side of her house. Amy leaned out onto the balcony that overlooked the green hills of Mobius, "Where are you?" she mumbled.

There was a knock on her door downstairs. Her eyes shot back to the knocking noise, "Who could that be?" She put on her house shoes and quickly but carefully went down the steep steps to the main floor.

Amy opened the front door to see Sonic standing there, "Sonic, what are you doing here this late?"

"It's never too late to see friends, ones as beautiful as you." he smiled while softly caressing her chin with his finger.

Amy felt light headed. She couldn't believe Sonic was flirting with her. It seemed so unreal, so unlike him, "This is a dream." she thought she said in her mind but instead she said it out loud.

"A dream come true maybe." Sonic held Amy's head cupped in the palm of his hand.

Amy remembered the times when she got her hopes up for moments like this, but they always turned bad. She didn't want to get her hopes up like this so she took a deep breath to get the excitement out of her body and then she took Sonic's hand and lightly pushed it away, "I'm sorry, I'm not ready for disappointment."

"I understand." Sonic politely said.

"What are you doing here anyways?" Amy asked messing with her hair.

"I...need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you have any idea where the guys are?"

"Which guys?" Amy asked, not knowing which guys he meant.

"Tails and Knuckles, I was supposed to hang out with them tonight but I can't find them anywhere."

"I haven't seen them all day. I really have no idea, Sonic, I'm sorry." Amy said feeling tired. She yawned so big she could've broken her jaw.

Sonic chuckled, "It's okay, Let me know when you get a hold of them."

"Will do, Sonic." she smiled with her eye lids halfway closed.

"Looks like you need some rest anyway, I'm sorry for disturbing you."

"It's fine, I was having some trouble sleeping anyways." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"I'll leave you to rest then." He smiled while stepping away from the door and waving goodbye, "I'll see you later."

"Oh wait, Sonic." Amy said to stop him in his tracks. She walked a little on the concrete walkway that ended at her door and started onto a dirt road.

Sonic turned his head to Amy, "What is it?"

"I was just wondering...If you wouldn't mind spending some time together tomorrow." She asked with her head down, hands behind her back, kicking softly at the ground, and feeling embarrassed by the question.

"I'd love to, Amy." He said smiling again.

Amy smiled as big as ever, "You mean it?" She asked feeling giddy.

"I do."

"Well, that's great." she felt like jumping in excitement but she decided to wait till no one was around to watch her, specifically inside her house.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow." Sonic said waving goodbye one last time.

Amy waved goodbye too and watched as Sonic sped off down the dirt road leaving a smokescreen of dirt floating in the air behind him. She walked back inside of her house where it was much warmer than outside. As she closed the door behind her, she also leaned against the closed door and when she was all alone she jumped in the air and danced, "Yes, yes, yes!"

She jumped back into bed. Her mind was at peace and she passed out and dreamed a dream that would no doubt come true tomorrow.


	14. It's a Trap!

After leaving Amy's house, Sonic continued to search for Knuckles and Tails under the night sky so he could bring them back to Robotnik's base.

Robotnik was in control of Sonic at his base, telling him what to do through his own pair of headsets, "Have you found them yet?"

"Not yet, I think they've thought this out pretty thorough." Sonic stood there looking all around him. So far, he's spent four hours looking for Knuckles and Tails.

"Maybe you should try looking in the most obvious of places." Robotnik suggested.

Sonic rubbed his chin in thought, "Sounds like a good plan, master." He turned around and blasted towards Tail's workshop. As soon as he blasted off, his ear piece fell out of his ear and fell onto the dirt road.

"Then get to it!" Was the last thing Robotnik said before Sonic left a pile of dust covering the ear piece behind him.

Sonic came to a screeching halt in front of Tails workshop that lay near the beach. The workshop seemed to be closed because the metal shutters locked any one out without a key. Sonic thought that it was too obvious. Tails and Knuckles picked the worst hiding spot ever Sonic thought to himself. He jogged over to the shutters and took a feel to the material. He knocked on the shutters too, "Shouldn't be too hard to get into."

Sonic charged up his spin dash for a long time until he was satisfied with the power he was going to unleash on the shutters. He unleashed his spin dash and broke through the metal shutters with no difficulty. He left a big hole in the shutters when he looked back at them, "Heh, no problem." he felt good about himself.

The workshop inside wasn't all that dark. Something in the middle was giving off a blue glow. Could it be a chaos emerald? He couldn't tell yet. Sonic got closer to the glowing object until he could see clearly a chaos emerald laying in the center of the table Tail's uses to work on his inventions. The chaos emerald was just lying out in the open, there was no one to be seen, "Boss, I didn't find them, but I found a chaos emerald..." He couldn't hear anything from the other side. Sonic touched the inside of his ear and he realized that the ear piece was gone, "Crap...I'll just give it to him on the way back."

Sonic was about to grab the chaos emerald until he felt a weird sensation of someone else being here. There was already a hole for him to escape in and he could speed off in no time. He shrugged and grabbed the chaos emerald. The inside of the workshop started to light up red with really loud alarm sirens. It was a trap. Oh well, he can still escape through the hole behind him. When he turned around to escape, another layer of shutters closed over the first shutter, only the second layer was a lot of thicker and stronger.

Sonic tried his best to spin dash through the thicker shutter doors but he was only hurting himself.

Through vents in the ceiling and floor, green gasses were hissing out filling the room with a greenish smokescreen.

Sonic covered his mouth and nose as best as he could keeping the blue chaos emerald in the other hand. It was no good; his hands couldn't keep the gasses from entering his nasal passages. He was beginning to lose consciousness; his eyelids were becoming heavy, along with a shortness of breath. He dropped to his knees and the chaos emerald on the ground at the same time. He fell over onto his side and rolled over on his back. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed were Knuckles and Tails with gasmasks on and then he passed out unconscious.


	15. A brand new Chaotic day

Amy rose awoke the next morning anxious to see and spend the day with Sonic. She jumped out of bed still in her night gown when the sun brightened up her room ready to start the day. She pushed her bedroom window open and leaned out into the fresh air and let the sun warm up her skin, "Today's going to be the best day ever!" she kept her windows open as she turned back towards her room and opened the drawers of her dresser. She looked for something to wear and threw pieces of clothing she didn't like onto the floor behind her.

"I need something special for my date with Sonic, but I just can't find the dress for it." She dug to the bottom of the first drawer, and then the next and the next until all of her clothes were in a huge pile in the middle of the floor. She moaned in irritation, "Gah, I don't have anything to wear!" She fell back onto her bed staring at the ceiling in deep thought. It hit her then; she had a dress for special occasions like this in her closet.

Amy hopped back onto her feet and ran to her closet. She opened the shutters that folded together when they opened. She only had one dress in the whole closet; it was like her usual dresses except this one was a sleeveless dark purple dress with sparkles and glitter on it. The dress was put together like an actual person with clothes hangers keeping each piece of clothing from falling; her special purple high heels hung at the bottom of the dress and a necklace decorated with shiny white pearls hung around the hook of the hanger that held the dress.

"This is perfect!" Amy took the whole thing down and dressed herself in her bathroom next to her bedroom. Sounds of zipping, thuds and grunts could be heard from the bathroom. When she finally came out, the sunlight reflected off her glittering dress and made her look stunningly beautiful. The dress showed off her legs and the high heels she wore kind of hurt her feet but she would have to endure. She walked over to the mirror on her wall and posed some, "There's no way Sonic can resist me now." She blew a kiss at her reflection.

Amy had a thought; "I wonder when he's coming..." she poked at her chin in wonder. She looked at the little alarm clock resting on her bedside table; it read 11:30am.

"Maybe I can give him a call and see when he's going to pick me up." Amy walked to the stairs with trouble balancing in her high heels. She looked down the stairway and down at her high heels. She sat down on the top step and took the high heels off, "For now, you're coming off." she carried the heels while walking down stairs barefooted.

Amy sat down on her couch and picked up the phone, dialed Sonic's house number and waited for Sonic to pick up. His phone rang once, twice, three times and it went straight to voice mail.

"Hey, this is Sonic the hedgehog. I'm not home right now, but if you leave your name and number at the beep, I'll get back to you as soon as I can." The phone beeped and Amy decided to leave a message.

"Hey Sonic, I'm all ready for our day together and I was wondering when you were going to pick me up. When you get this, call me back, okay, bye." She hung up the phone and laid back long ways on her couch. She began to think about the things they were going to do together; Pictures of them having a picnic in the shade under the trees, or having a romantic walk on the beach came to mind. A smile grew on her face with these images in mind.

Someone knocked on the door and Amy sprang up to answer it. She ran to the door, turned the knob and opened it. It was Sonic that was at the door, it was Charmy the bee and Vector the crocodile, "awe, man!" she walked away slowly in disappointment and the other guys came in.

"Hey, Amy do you have any food. I'm starving." Charmy asked floating and holding his growling tummy.

"Yes I have food, and NO you can't have any. Now leave!" She tried pushing them out of the door but they were too persistent.

Vector pushed hard and knocked Amy and Charmy down on their butts next to each other.

Amy's dress ripped slightly. She took the ripped part in her hand and held it in front of her eyes. She began to feel sad and hopeless about her date with Sonic, and then she felt enraged towards Charmy and Vector. Her pupils were on fire she was so mad.

Charmy got to his feet and the ground around him turned dark like clouds covering the sun. Charmy turned around and saw Amy staring down at him with fire in her eyes.

"You ripped my perfect dress!" She grabbed at him but Charmy flapped his wings to quick and dodged her, "You're going to regret coming here!" She tried to grab Charmy once more but Vector grabbed her around the waist to restrain her.

"Run, Charmy. Find the food!" Vector yelled.

Charmy flew off as fast as he found the kitchen, quick.

Amy tried to break free of Vector's grip but it didn't help. She made her mallet appear out of nowhere and into her hands. She swung her mallet backwards and hit Vector on top of the head like a child playing wack-a-mole.

Vector went down and Amy went after Charmy with her mallet in flames.

"Stay away from my food!" She swung her mallet at Charmy but missed every time.

Charmy ducked, dodged and maneuvered her every swing. He ducked another one of her swings and flew after Vector who was lying on the ground next to the door. He tried to pull Vector up but he was too heavy and Vector was in too much pain to move.

Amy cornered Vector and Charmy. She swung her mallet back behind her with both hands and screamed as she swung it over her head and down at them.

Vector and Charmy screamed together as they watched Amy's mallet came down at them.

Outside of the house, screams and violent punching sounds could be heard coming from inside of the house.


	16. Vector and Charmy All Tied Up

Amy rose circled around the two of the Chaotix team; Vector and Charmy while they were tied to chairs, back to back in the center of the living room

Both Vector and Charmy were badly beat up with bruises and such. They could hardly sit straight because they were so woozy from the beating.

Amy stopped in front of Vector and asked in a threatening voice, "What were you guys thinking breaking into MY house, are you working for Eggman now or something?"

"No, no, no we would never work for that guy!" Vector was sweating with fear.

"Then why did you?" She grabbed Vectors golden neck collar and pulled it up so it was choking him.

In a raspy voice, Vector said, "we were just hungry!"

Amy didn't let go, "That's not a good enough excuse!" She lifted is up more.

Vector was turning blue, losing his green skin.

Amy let go of his collar, she didn't want to kill them. She just wanted to hurt them enough so they would get the clue to never mess with her.

Vector turned back to his normal green color again. He let out a big gasp for air, "We're really sorry, Amy. I guess our hunger got out of control."

Amy turned sincere, "Why don't you guys have any food?" She sat back on her couch and listened to Vector but Charmy interrupted.

"Vector here ate it all, at least that's what me and Espio think."

"Where is Espio anyways?" Amy asked out of curiosity because he wasn't with Vector and Charmy.

"He went to investigate to see if I actually ate all the food," He turned his head toward the chair behind him where Charmy was tied up, "Even though I didn't!"

"You're such a liar, Vector. You'd eat me if I was dead and roasted on a grill!"

"I would not!"

"You would Too!"

They both argued back and forth and Amy was getting annoyed by it. That's when she raised her voice; "Shut UP!" the last word lasted for a long time until Vector and Charmy stopped arguing and looked at her. Amy took a deep breath and got back to her sincere mode, "So you think someone took your food? She asked Vector.

"That's exactly what I think," Vector said, "And to be honest, Charmy I was going to stuff my face this morning but when I opened the fridge, it was all gone." He said to Charmy

Charmy wanted to cross his arms but since they were restricted by the ropes, he just turned his head and scoffed.

"Come on, Charmy, give him a break." Amy begged.

"He's lying, Amy, I know it!" Charmy stood by his beliefs.

"How do you know he's lying when you don't have proof?" Amy asked.

Vector thought she had a good point.

"I do have proof, it's in his stomach." Charmy giggled at that but it went away quick.

"The only thing that's in my stomach was that horrible potato salad you made us last night." Vector said, insulting Charmy's cooking skills.

"Oh, would you guys stop. You sound like a bickering married couple." She laughed. Vector and Charmy arguing put her in a good humor, "You know what," She stood up from the couch and towards the chairs Vector and Charmy were tied against, "I feel so sorry for you guys," She started to untie the knots in the rope restricting them, "That I'm going to let you go." The rope fell to the floor setting Vector and Charmy free.

Charmy hovered in the air and turned to Amy, "For the record, I could've escaped the entire time."

"Then why didn't you?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, why didn't you?" Vector asked also.

"Because no matter what kind of trouble Vector and I get ourselves into, I'll always stick by his side." Charmy felt a little embarrassed by that, he started blushing.

"Awe, you!" Vector took Charmy's head under his arm and gave him a noogie by rubbing his knuckles against his head.

Charmy escaped Vector's grasp and continued to float.

Vector stopped to look at Amy and what she was wearing, "Why are you so dressed up for, Amy?"

Amy looked at her dress and also the rip in it at the bottom, "I was getting dolled up to spend some time with Sonic." She sat back down in sadness, "But now that the dress it ruined and I don't think I'll be going."

Vector and Charmy sat at her sides to comfort her, "That little rip?" Vector held the rip from her dress in his fingertips, "That's nothing, Charmy can fix that in no time, can't you buddy?" Vector asked.

"You can?" Amy asked Charmy in surprise.

"Yep, I'm a master in the sewing arts." He wore a big egotistical smile with his hands at his sides like a superhero posing.

"Well what are we waiting for; let's get to it before it's too late." Amy grabbed Charmy's arm and dragged him to her room upstairs.

Vector followed behind them.


	17. Giving Thanks

It took no longer than an hour or so to fix Amy's dress. When it was all done, she was so happy. She held up her dress as her smile lit up the whole room, "This is perfect!" She hugged Charmy and Vector, "I don't know how to thank you guys enough."

Vector and Charmy hugged her back, "Well there's no need to do anything..." Vector said when he was actually thinking food.

Amy stepped back with an idea in her head, "I got it!" She ran to her kitchen, turned the knob on her stove to the "Bake" setting, and turned the temperature to 375 degrees. She turned a 180 degree angle towards the guys and said, "I'm going to cook you guys some food, it's the least I could do."

Vector and Charmy gave each other high fives yelling, "Yes!" but Vector's high five sent Charmy flying into a wall and getting stuck in the dent.

"I can fix that..." Vector said feeling guilty.

Amy giggled, "It's okay, Vector. Nothing could possibly ruin this day for me." unless Sonic doesn't show, she thought. "So, come on, sit down at the table while I prepare everything." She gestured to the dinner table which sat near the windows making the kitchen look like heaven with the sunlight coming through.

Vector pulled Charmy out of the wall and towards the table where they sat and awaited food.

30 minutes passed by and the guys got their food which consisted of chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, and some vegetables on the side. Charmy pushed his vegetables aside because he didn't like them.

Amy stood by the table watching the guys eat. She kept looking at her wall clock time and time again. She was becoming nervous that Sonic might not show up. She looked at the clock again and it read 2:45pm. She knew it was still early, but at the same time it felt like the day was passing by too quickly. She didn't know it because she was off in her own little world, but her face was giving off a worried signal.

Vector noticed that she wasn't looking happy so he stopped eating for a second, "What's wrong, Amy."

Amy came back to reality like someone awoke her from a nightmare. She looked at Vector and hesitated to answer because she almost forgot his question, "Nothing...it's nothing." She smiled and brushed her hair back with her fingers.

"Come on, Amy, you can open up to us." Vector said assuring with his best smile.

Charmy pulled a chair out from their table and slid it under Amy so she could sit down with them.

Amy was hesitant to say but she sucked it up and did it anyways, "well it's just that I'm afraid Sonic won't come is all..."

"Wait, so he's supposed to pick YOU up?" Vector asked.

"Yea and I'm afraid I'll be stood up...again."

"Well that's the problem, Amy. You can't just wait for things to happen. Sometimes you just have to make things happen yourself, right Charmy?" he gestured to Charmy for agreement.

"That's right." Charmy nodded with agreement.

"So, what do you think I should do, just march on over to Sonic and..."

Vector interrupted, "And remind him that you have feelings. You sure have showed US that." Vector said, reminding her of the beating Amy gave them.

Amy felt a little better now because what Vector said was absolutely true to her. She couldn't just wait for Sonic to come to her; she had to go to him. She blushed that these guys were nice enough to give some advice, "You guys are right, I have to remind Sonic that I'm a proud woman with feelings." She stood up, "I'm going to go over there right now." She said feeling powerful.

Vector stood up too, "And I'll back you up."

"Me too!" Charmy joined Vector.

"Thanks guys, but this is something I have to do alone." Amy suggested.

"Come on, Amy, I feel like we owe you one." Vector offered.

"You guys did enough, already." Amy said referring to them fixing her dress. She continued to walk to her front door until Vector blocked the doorway with his body.

"Listen little lady, we're coming whether you like it or not."

Amy rolled her eyes, "Fine, you can come. But as soon as me and Sonic go on our date, you guys better stay out of my way."

Vector offered a handshake, "It's a deal."

Amy shook hands with Vector, "Good."

Vector moved out of the way.

Amy opened the door and all three of them; Vector, Charmy, and Amy were on their way to Sonic's house.


	18. Lost and Still Searching

Amy walked to Sonic's house with Vector and Charmy following behind her. She still felt weird with the guys coming with her. She felt that it was a girl thing and men shouldn't be involved. But one nice thing led to another nice favor and now Amy felt like she should accept Vector and Charmy's offer to back her up. It was the least she could do, and the only small thing she'll ever consider ever again. Amy knocked on Sonic's front door, "Sonic, I'm ready!" She called out to him.

There was no answer. No one came to answer the door.

"A little rude isn't he?" Vector commented.

Amy ignored Vector and knocked even harder, "Sonic, hurry up!" Amy was getting impatient. No one came to the door again and that really made Amy boil up in anger, "Okay, I'm not going to be stood up. If you're not going to come out, I'm coming in after you!" She was about to kick the door open until the door opened by itself when the wind around them picked up.

Amy put her foot down and continued inside. Gently, she pushed the door all the way open until it stopped against the wall behind it. She took one look around the living room and felt an empty vibe to it.

"This place looks deserted." Vector said following up at Amy's side.

"Sonic!" She called out to him again but her voice only carried an echo throughout the whole house. Gasping at the emptiness, Amy had a feeling that Sonic might be hurt or in trouble. Knowing the layout of Sonic's house, she sprinted to his room first. Stopping at the bathroom, she saw it was nearly destroyed. She put her hands over her mouth at the devastation, "Oh my god..." She whispered under her hands.

"Oh my, it seems like Sonic got into something bad." Vector commented.

Charmy was ahead of the group, he was in Sonic's room when he saw a dent in the wall. He called out to the others and they came as quickly as they could.

"What'd you find, Charmy?" Vector asked.

"It looks like he got knocked into the wall or something." Charmy observed.

Amy got closer to the dent in the wall, bent her knee's to get lower and rubbed her hands against the cracks in the wall. On her middle finger was a dot of blood. She rubbed her middle finger against her thumb and it seemed to still be wet and sticky when it stretched between her fingers, "We have to find Sonic," Amy suggested, "He's probably walking around somewhere in pain and I can't stand around and let him suffer like that." She stood back up and ran out of the room and towards the front door.

Vector and Charmy followed in behind her. When they got outside, Vector put his hand on Amy's shoulder from behind to stop her, "Amy, we don't even know where he is."

"Yeah, you're right. We'll have to get some help." Amy said deep in thought, nearly mumbling all of her words. Amy envisioned Sonic walking in the middle of a forest and in bleeding pain. Calling for help.

"Amy, wake up!" Vector shook her and she came back to reality.

"Oh, sorry," She then thought of someone who could possibly help, "Let's see Tails and see if he can put some people together for a, uh...search party!"

"That's a great idea!" Vector agreed happily.

"Let's do it!" Charmy happily agreeing with them.

All three of them began to run to Tail's workshop which wasn't a far run. When they showed up there, the shutters blocked them from getting inside.

"Oh no, now what are we going to do?" Charmy asked in doubt.

"I got an idea..." Amy made her mallet appear into her hands, "There's nothing too big for my hammer to bust through." She swung her mallet back and with all of her power, she swung her mallet towards the shutters. Amy's hammer made a hole in the shutter for all of them to climb through, "hmm, I thought it would've been harder." Amy said to herself.

All of them ducked through the big hole and entered the workshop. There was no one inside, the workshop looked deserted just like Sonic's house, "Is everyone on vacation or something?" Vector wondered out loud.

"Hold on guys, there's more places than this." Amy said walking around to the center table.

Vector and Charmy wore a confused face.

Amy put her hand under the table and pushed a little red button. The table made a mechanical buzz and rose up above the ground revealing an elevator underneath.

"Whoa, that's incredible!" Vector said surprisingly, "How'd you know about that?"

"I do my share of stalking once in a while." She giggled.

"Oh yea, that's right." Vector mumbled remembering that Amy's infatuated with Sonic. A little too infatuated.

Amy walked around to the entrance of the elevator, lifted a black and yellow striped bar and let herself in. She awaited the others to come in too; there was enough room for everyone else.

Vector walked into the elevator with Charmy sitting upon his shoulder.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Amy asked.

Vector and Charmy said "Yup." at the same time.

Amy pulled the lever on the control panel in front of them and the elevator began to go down with them inside.


	19. A Misunderstanding

The elevator slowly makes it way down into the lower levels of Tail's workshop. The only things they passed by were bright metal walls lit up by vertical poles with light inside them built into the walls. All the way down they could only hear the humming mechanisms of the elevator.

"Are you sure they're down here, Amy?" Vector asked.

"Of course, Tails always locks up his workshop when he goes underground. I always come down here and catch him and Sonic hanging out or working on some sort of invention."

"Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find Sonic hanging out down here." Vector assumed.

"You know, I never thought of that." Amy began to feel more excited that maybe this search for Sonic wouldn't last long.

The elevator slowly stopped at their destination. The bar rose up to set them free.

Amy and Vector got off of the elevator with Charmy hopping off of Vector's shoulder to fly by himself.

Amy ran by herself towards the double swinging doors calling, "Tails!" She pushed open the doors with her eyes closed, "hey, Tails, is Sonic...with you." She opened her eyes to a horrific sight; Sonic was lying on a block of metal with a pillow under his head. Wires with sticky ends to them were attached to Sonic's head and he was being held to the bed by metal straps. Sonic seemed to be asleep or...dead.

Tails was working with the computers that were sitting against the white tiled walls. The wires attached to Sonic's head were connected to the computers.

Knuckles was nowhere to be seen.

Amy was so mad that she wanted to beat up Tails until he couldn't feel anything ever again. She imagined Tails at Sonic's house with some sort of weapon and causing all of that destruction, "YOU JERK!" She ran over to Tails with her mallet.

Tails turned around to scream at Amy about to hit him with her mallet. He rolled out of the way in time for Amy to destroy the computer Tail's was previously working with, "What are you doing!" Tails yelled while running for his life at the same time.

Amy kept swinging her mallet at Tails and missing, making dents in the walls, "I'm protecting Sonic and getting you back for hurting the love of my life!"

Vector and Charmy came in just in time to see Amy chasing Tails with her big mallet around the metal block Sonic was lying on, "Whoa, Amy, calm down!" Vector told Amy.

"Not until I give Tails what he deserves!" Amy yelled and at the same time still chasing Tails around the room.

Vector interfered with the chase and caught Amy around the waist stopping her in her tracks, "Amy, you don't know that it was him, be rational!"

"Don't make me hurt you like last time, Vector!" Amy threatened. Amy struggled in Vector's grip when she hit Vector in the head with her mallet like last time.

Vector stumbled backwards rubbing his head, "I gotta stop doing that." He said to himself.

Tails was gone when Amy was released from Vector's grip. There was only one other door Tails could have escaped through, and it was a door opposite of the door leading to the elevator.

Amy ran towards the other door with her mallet ready. She busted through the doors looking for Tail's but he was nowhere to be seen, "Tail's, come out here so I can kick your butt!" She threatened, grasping her mallet tightly in her hands.

Out of nowhere, Knuckles came out from behind her and put a rag soaked in chloroform over Amy's mouth and nose.

Amy struggled again but it didn't last long when the chloroform was working its magic. Her eye lids got heavy and her whole body went limp until lastly she passed out and dropped her mallet on the floor.

Knuckles carried Amy in his arms with Tails following behind him, carried her to the nearest bed chamber where it was dark and softly laid her down onto the bed.

Knuckles and Tails looked down upon her unconscious body. Tails felt bad that they had to take these kinds of measures towards their friend Amy Rose, "It was for the best." Knuckles said to Tails to comfort him.

"Yea..." Tails didn't know what else to say. He was speechless.

"Once she wakes up and see's Sonic up and running, she'll see that we weren't hurting him. Everything will be back to normal." Knuckles patted Tails on the back before leaving the bed chamber through the double swinging doors.

Tail's followed Knuckles behind and let light inside the room when he passed through the doors and the darkness came back when the doors closed.

A few hours later, Amy Rose opened her eyes. She was still in a daze from the Chloroform. She slowly sat up on the edge of the bed and rubbed her eyes. The room she was in was dark and quiet. The room was so quiet; she could hear talking in the distant beyond the doors in front of her. That's when she remembered what happened. Amy quickly stood up, making herself dizzy once more and almost losing her balance, "Whoa..." She said with her head spinning. She held on to the bed railing for balance until she felt normal.

Amy busted through the first door leading out of the chamber, "nothing's going to stop me from avenging Sonic." Then she busted through the doors leading to where Sonic was lying down, "Alright, Tails, you're gonna get it now..." She stopped and this time Sonic wasn't lying down unconscious, he was sitting up at the edge of the metal block with Tail's, Knuckles and 2 of the Chaotix team; Vector and Charmy standing around him, "Sonic..." She ran to his side completely ignoring everyone else that was there. She lay her head in Sonic's lap since he was sitting higher than everyone else, "Oh, Sonic I thought you were dead." She began to sob and her tears dripped off her face and onto Sonic's legs.

"No, Amy, I'm alright now." He said in monotone, almost like he was sad or just not happy. He put his hand on Amy's head.

Amy turned her head on Sonic's lap to look at everyone else, she looked down the line from the Chaotix, to Knuckles, and lastly Tails where she put her angry face on. She pointed to Tails weakly, "You're never going to hurt him again." She walked angrily towards Tails and was about to hurt him until Sonic grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Tail's didn't do anything, Amy." Sonic admitted. Sonic and Amy stared at each other for a long time until Amy awoke.

"What do you mean, I went to your house, I saw your bathroom and bedroom nearly destroyed and now I come down here and see you unconscious in Tail's underground workshop and you're going to sit there and tell me that he..." She pointed at Tails accusingly, "Didn't do anything?"

"Yes I am, because that stuff at my house happened yesterday morning. Not today."

"So he destroyed your house then?" Amy asked.

"No, Tail's didn't do any...of that." He was getting annoyed at her ignorant accusations.

"Who did it then?" Amy got close to Sonic and put his hands in hers, "I'll hurt whoever did it if you just tell me."

"If you tried to take this person on, you wouldn't be able to handle it." Sonic said taking his hands out of hers.

"Try me." Amy challenged.

Sonic hesitated for a second to tell her. He didn't want her to try to fight this thing. His eyes turned from Amy so he could think.

"Well, who was it?" Amy was getting impatient.

Sonic turned his gaze towards Amy, "It was one of Eggman's robots. Remember that robot version of me?"

"Only every day of my life. Eggman called it Metal Sonic, right?" Amy wasn't sure if she got the question right. It was a long time ago and she didn't know if her memory could go back that far.

Sonic nodded, "Yeah, it was Metal Sonic, but this one was stronger and more advanced. This one was the one me and Knuckles encountered on the sanctuary in the clouds above a long time ago." He looked at Knuckles to see if he showed any signs of remembering that day.

Knuckles nodded.

"I'm sure I can take him. Nothing's too strong or too big for my hammer to break through." Amy said with courage.

"He may be too fast for you though, he's almost faster than me." Sonic said.

"That's impossible, Sonic; you're the fastest thing ever." Amy couldn't believe anything being faster than him; he never saw anything run faster than Sonic.

"It wasn't natural speed, Amy; he had boosters so it was like he was cheating." He chuckled. He jumped onto the floor and tried to walk but he was almost as dizzy as Amy was when she woke up.

Amy caught Sonic before he could fall.

Sonic leaned against the metal block he was previously lying on.

Amy looked at Tails, "What were you doing to him anyways?"

"I was trying to overclock the chip in Sonic's brain." Tails said walking over to his computers.

Amy saw the computer she broke when she was trying to hurt Tails earlier. She felt bad about it now, "Sorry about the computer, Tails."

Tails smiled, "It's okay, Amy. All of these computers," he gestured at the other computers lined up on the walls that weren't broken, "They were running the same software I was working on. So it's like I never lost any data." Tails typed on his computer to make an X-ray picture of Sonic show up. He gestured for everyone else to come take a look.

Everyone else walked over to the computer to see what was showing on the computer screen.

"What is that?" Amy asked.

The computer screen showed a square item in Sonic's head.

"It's the chip I was trying to overclock, or to put it in simpler words, I was trying to disable it." Tails said.

"What was it doing?"

"I believe it was something Eggman invented so he could take control of Sonic with a remote control."

"How did you turn it off?"

"Well..." Tails was afraid of telling Amy the risks he had to take, it involved hurting Sonic a little bit, "We had to basically fry it, burn it up, and destroy it, etcetera."

"How would you do that, unless..." She imagined Tails opening up his head and operating, "did you do some sort of brain surgery?" She said disgusted.

"No, no, no not at all." Tails shook his hands at Amy, "You see, I just attached some wires with the sticky rubber tips to the spot where the chip is located on his head right here." He pointed at certain spots on Sonic's head in the X-ray picture, "then I just send some electric volts through his brain until the chip is destroyed."

"Don't you think it would damage his brain a little bit?" Amy asked.

"That's the risk we had to take, I can't perform brain surgery, that's too big of a risk, Amy."

Sonic still stood near the metal block. He was listening to Tails though even though it didn't look it, "I would rather take the volts than another brain surgery." He rubbed his temples, "I'd rather take a headache than a brain ache."

Amy thought about it and she realized that the date they had was probably not going to happen. It wasn't really Sonic asking her, it was a trick. She felt depressed but didn't show it around them. She moved her way through the crowd of people and made her way towards the exit door.

"Amy, where are you going?" Tails asked.

Amy didn't answer, she wanted to go home and lay in bed all day. She felt it was too good to be true that Sonic would ever want to spend time with her. She passed Sonic by the Metal block.

Sonic grabbed her hand, "Amy, is there something wrong?"

Amy wiped a tear off her face, "I'm tired..." She pulled her hand free from his and walked through the double exit doors toward the elevator. She got inside, closed the safety bars and pulled the lever upwards. The elevator started up and moved upwards to the workshop above ground. When her face was out of range from the others, she couldn't help but let her emotions go and cry. She slid down the side of the elevator and sat down holding her knees to her face. She silently wept in her knees until the elevator stopped at the top. She still didn't move and she sat there for a long time crying until she was ready to walk home with her head down.


	20. Deep Consideration

Inside the bed chamber of Tail's underground workshop, Sonic lies in the bed looking up at the ceiling and thinking about how much worse Robotnik's plan could've gotten. And he also thought about Amy Rose on the side and wondered what was wrong with her earlier that day.

Tail's came through the door to check on Sonic's health, "How're you feeling, Sonic?" Tails asked.

Sonic didn't move but he spoke, "I'm feeling much better, thanks buddy." His smile was meant for Tails but he didn't look at him when he did it.

"What's on your mind?" Tail's approached Sonic and sat as his bedside.

"A lot of things..." Sonic replied.

"Like what?"

"Like the whole time I had no control over myself, I prayed that I wouldn't hurt you or anyone else. I was afraid that Eggman's plan would go too far, so far that someone would die by my hands that I had no control over."

"I understand, Sonic, I would've felt the same way, probably worse."

Sonic didn't say anything.

"The important thing, Sonic, is that we stopped Eggman's plan and you got back control of your own body." Tail's tried to cheer Sonic up since his eyes looked deep in thought and worry.

"Yeah..." That's the last thing sonic said before Tail's decided to give him some peace and quiet. He patted Sonic on the hand once, stood up, and walked out of the room leaving Sonic alone again to think in private.

Sonic thought about visiting Amy to see what was up with her. She said she was tired but it all seemed too suspicious. When Amy touched her face, Sonic saw her finger stained with something. He thought it might've been a tear. It had to be a tear of sadness. What else could she of been wiping from her face, he doubted it was sweat because the underground workshop had air-conditioning.

Sonic made up his mind; he was going over to Amy's to find out what was going on. He got out of bed, put on his running shoes and made his way to the elevator when Tails, at his computer, saw him out of bed.

"Sonic, I don't think you should be out of bed in your condition." Tails didn't think Sonic was healed enough to be walking around on his own, let alone running on his own.

"I told you, Tails, I feel tons better." Sonic tried convincing him. He opened up the doors leading to the elevator shaft and turned around to say to Tails, "Don't wait up for me." he winked at him, turned around, and walked towards the elevator. He pushed a button on the side to make the elevator that was now on the top floor, come down to the bottom to meet Sonic. While waiting for the elevator to come down, Sonic thought of ways to get Amy to spill the beans.

Back at Robotnik's base. Robotnik wasn't surprised that his plan had been a failure. When the mind control chip in Sonic's head was disabled, his remote control stopped working. He also couldn't communicate with him anymore because the ear piece Sonic was supposed to be wearing was lost somewhere in the middle of Mobius. Robotnik didn't get furious at his failure like he usually does. He just sat there on his throne, silently overlooking the ocean through a big window.

Robotnik mumbles to himself, "How I dream of exploring that vast ocean spread without being accused of plotting something evil." He took a deep breath of air, "My plans are always failing, and I'm always stuck inside this confounded metal cocoon of a hideout." He stretches out his arms towards the window overlooking the ocean, "I want to go out there and be at piece..."

He speaks out loud.

Robotnik pushes his glasses upwards out of his eyes to rub his eyes, "I'm tired." he gets out of his chair and walks toward the window. He stands there continuing to look at the ocean spread in deep thought, "In order for me to be at piece, I need to change. I need to be who I once was before the accident..." He visualizes the incident before he became evil; his name was Kintobor and the rotten egg from the fridge of his laboratory. He tripped over wires and fell with the six of the seven chaos emeralds he kept and changed him from Dr. Kintobor to Robotnik.

His flashback ended and he came to the conclusion that, "I must change for the better, or else I'll meet my demise sooner or later." He coughed a little bit then his coughing became a lot more violent until he was sputtering blood from his mouth and into the palm of his hand, "What's happening to me?" Robotnik was scared, he thought maybe he had gynx'd himself. He had an idea on how to figure out what was wrong with him. He sprinted toward the medical station to find out.


	21. When you wish upon a star

It was nearing midnight when Sonic decided to find Amy and have a talk with her. He wasn't in any hurry because he liked to enjoy the night sky and its beautiful stars. Looking up at the stars, Sonic was reminded of an old song called _when you wish upon a star_ and he quietly sung that song on the way to Amy's house.

Sonic made it to Amy's house, approached and knocked on her front door. He waited for someone to answer but no one came. He walked over to the windows at the side of the house and looked inside the living room. What he saw inside the living room was Amy lying on the couch opposite of Sonic still wearing her special dress. The living room was bright with the lamps on the tables next to the couch.

Amy didn't notice Sonic because she was too busy pulling out tissues from the box and wiping her face clean of tears. Amy talked to herself, "I knew I should've gave up hoping," Amy sarcastically said to herself, "But there's always something that brings that smile back on my face just to take it off again." she continued to sob, "I mean why would Sonic want to spend time with me when he has that stupid Sally whore!" She didn't really hate on Sally squirrel, she was just getting it all out to make herself feel better, or try to anyways.

Sonic heard enough and he didn't want Amy talking like that anymore. He didn't knock on the door this time; he just barged in and stood where Amy could see him.

Amy didn't notice him at first until he spoke.

"Amy..." Sonic said to get her attention.

Amy looked up through her red puffy eyes. She turned her face away when she noticed him there, "What're you doing here?" Amy said sitting up and hiding her face.

"I wanted to come and talk to you." He approached her and sat by her side on the couch.

"I don't want you to see me like this so please just leave." she blew her nose in the last tissue she had in her hand before Sonic showed up.

"I think it's a little late for that." Sonic said light heartedly.

Amy sighed and lightly shook her head feeling terrible and ugly, "you probably think I look horrible." She said wiping the last of her tears away but still hiding her face.

Sonic chuckled through his nose, "obviously you don't have mind reading powers if you think I thought that."

Amy couldn't help but laugh but she bit her lip to stop it.

"There's that smile." Sonic saw her cheek muscles stretching from behind her head, "If you keep that up, then you'll be the prettiest girl I've ever seen"

Amy tried her best not to blush but it wasn't easy, "You don't mean that."

"Try me."

Amy was hesitant into turning around and facing Sonic. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and repositioned herself so her body and face was facing him.

"Now open your eyes." Sonic gently commanded.

Amy gently bit her lip when she opened her eyes. When she saw him smiling, she began to blush big time. She was about to turn around but Sonic stopped her.

He grabbed her shoulders to stop her from turning around, "Ah, ah I don't think so Cinderella."

"I'm no princess!" She didn't say it angrily, more like embarrassed with a mix of a normal conversation, "Sally was the princess..."

"That doesn't mean you don't mean a lot to me, Amy."

"How much is a lot?" Amy asked suspiciously like an eagle staring down its prey.

"As much as a best friend cares for another best friend." Sonic replied feeling good about his answer.

Amy scoffed disappointed, "That's not a lot to me, Sonic."

"What more do you want?" Sonic said getting mad.

"I want us to be more than best friends, Gah!" She stood up from the couch and walked away from Sonic but stayed in the same room.

"I can't do that, Amy!" Sonic said staying in his seat.

Amy turned around feeling sad and angry again, "Why not? Give me one good reason, Sonic the hedgehog." She waited with her foot tapping impatiently.

Sonic stood up and walked over to Amy trying to be sincere, "You know why."

"No I don't. No one ever gave me a reason!"

"We can't be together, because of Eggman." Sonic said.

"And what could he do? He couldn't stop us from being together." Amy didn't completely understand the danger.

"Yes he could, Amy. If we were together, Eggman would take the weakest part of me, and that would be you."

"What are you talking about?" Amy was listening with concern and interest.

"I'm the iceberg to his Titanic. I ruin all of his plans and he'll do anything to ruin my life and if he were to take you, then my life would be pretty much ruined."

Amy felt flattered, "Oh, Sonic." she began to tear up again but with happiness this time, "do you really mean that?"

"I do." Sonic replied.

She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Sonic returned the hug around her waist.

"I love you, Sonic." Amy whispered.

"I wish I could say the same," they separated from their hug at arm's length, "But I wanna save it for the right moment."

Amy smiled, "I understand."

Sonic looked outside into the night and gazed at the bright moon, "It's beautiful out tonight." he approached the window and so did Amy by his side.

"Yeah it is..." Amy looked at Sonic.

Sonic looked at Amy, "You wanna take a walk with me?" he offered his hand.

"I wish I could but I'm really tired." She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"Then you should get some sleep, I have to get going anyways." Sonic randomly touched her hand and let his fingers slide off of her hand, "I'll see you later, princess." He winked and began to walk away.

"Don't go yet." Amy silently pleaded, "Please, Sonic."

Sonic stopped and turned halfway around.

"Can you stay with me, just for tonight?" Amy asked.

"I guess. what did you have in mind?"

For the rest of the night, Sonic and Amy cuddled closely on the couch with the lights off. The moon lit up the room making the experience more beautiful than ever. Sonic had to admit when he watched Amy sleeping with her head on his lap, she never looked more beautiful. Eventually Sonic went to sleep too and the rest of the night just drifted away.


	22. The Results

Dr. Robotnik sat on a table in one of the rooms in the medical wing of his base. He awaited the test results to see if he was going to be okay. He felt nervous as he swung his feet back and forth. It was the first time in his life that he sputtered blood from his coughs. It was a scary moment for him.

One of Robotnik's medical robots came into the room to give him the news. This robot however didn't have a robot voice like you would expect. This robot had a woman's voice.

Dr. Robotnik waited for her to give him the results. He was impatient, "How does it look?" He asked playing with own fingers.

"Not good." the fembot replied.

"What do you mean?" Robotnik wanted more details.

"What I mean is something is draining you. Your blood cells are dissipating, they are dissolving every hour of every day." the fembot explained.

"How is that possible?" Robotnik was hyperventilating, "I've been feeling fine all these years and now I show signs of weakness?"

"It appears that way, doctor."

Robotnik calmed down and he had one more question that would give him the answers he needed all at once, "How long do I have?"

"If my calculations are correct, you have at least 48 hours until your life force is completely drained."

"Until I die, you mean..." He mumbled but the fembot heard him.

"That is correct, sir."

The room was completely quiet as Robotnik took in the bad news. He took in deep breath, held his head up high and smiled. He looked at his fembot and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir." the fembot left the room leaving Robotnik sitting alone.

Robotnik couldn't believe the news. He couldn't think of anything that would make this a good thing. Sonic and his friends might be happy, he was sure they would throw a party when he died. He chuckled at that picture. He was going to give up being evil anyways, so it all worked out for the better.

Later that day, Robotnik entered a room that had tubes filled with water. In these tubes floated the 3 types of Metal Sonic's; Silver Sonic, Metal and Mecha Sonic who attacked the original Sonic two days ago. He looked upon these brilliant inventions of his in awe. He thought since he was going to die, he might as well get rid of everything he invented but he wasn't going to do it right now.

He went back to his throne room where he opened up the chaos emerald holder, took out the one chaos emerald he had and looked at it from all sides. He stared it down angrily, "It's all because of you. You made me like this and now I'm going to die." He gripped the emerald in his hand went outside.

Robotnik walked along a cliff that was placed behind his base. He ran towards the cliff and was about to throw the emerald out into the ocean below but he stopped his arm before it could stretch out. Something was making his arm freeze in place. He didn't want the chaos emerald anymore but he couldn't let go of the emerald if his life depended on it, "I don't want you!" Robotnik growled under his teeth.

The chaos emerald glowed in the center as if it were reacting to Robotnik's anger.

"Get out of my hand!" He screamed.

The emerald glowed brighter.

"Stop it!" sadness was coming upon him and that's when he could move his arm. He stumbled backward from the sudden ablement to move. Robotnik's foot caught the edge of the cliff and he almost fell off the cliff. He stretched the arm with the chaos emerald in hand forward and something weird happened. Something pulled him forward away from the cliff but no one was around to help him. He stumbled forward away from the cliff. He turned around and wondered what just happened. That's when he opened the palm of his hand and saw the Chaos emerald glowing in the very center.

He couldn't believe that the Chaos emerald had saved his life. He would never believe such a thing. So he took the emerald and threw it on the ground as hard as he could.

The emerald broke into pieces on impact. The breaking of the emerald caused a tiny ringing noise to be thrown across the world of Mobius like someone blowing a dog whistle.

covered his ears but that didn't help at all. The noise was so strong it brought him to his knees. He screamed in pain but no one could hear him since no one was in his general area.


	23. Tornado in the sky

The sun was just setting at Amy's house when Sonic awoke from the couch. Amy was still resting her head on his lap as she continued to sleep. Sonic looked down at her and in his own opinion, she still looked beautiful at sunset. Slowly, Sonic raised Amy's head as he tried to stand up from the couch without waking her. He got off of the couch and slowly laid her head back down on the couch cushions.

Amy never stirred in her sleep.

Sonic entered Amy's bathroom and looked in the mirror over the sink. He looked at his face to see if he still had his good looks, "I still got it." he pointed and winked at himself. Not looking where his hands were swinging, he accidently knocked the toothpaste from the sink counter to the floor, "it's too early for me to be clumsy." he sighed and bent down to pick it up but something felt weird about this moment, it felt like he was having some sort of deja vu.

Sonic couldn't make out what was so familiar about this so he just stood back up with the toothpaste and placed it back on the counter. As soon as Sonic looked back into the mirror, he saw Mecha Sonic behind him. Sonic gasped in surprise but he couldn't move. He could only watch Mecha Sonic's eyes glow red and at the same time a tiny ringing sound got louder and louder as his eyes glowed brighter and brighter.

Mecha Sonic grabbed onto Sonic's shoulder.

Sonic woke up from the couch sweating. The ringing was still being heard from somewhere but he didn't know. The noise wasn't coming from his ear.

The ringing eventually awoke Amy from her slumber wondering what that noise was coming from.

The ringing got so loud it was now hurting their eardrums. Sonic and Amy covered their ears. Amy drew closer to Sonic and he held her close while still covering his own ears.

"What is that noise!" Amy tried yelling over the ear piercing ringing.

"I don't know!" Sonic replied louder.

Meanwhile at Angel Island, Knuckles was at the Master emerald Shrine doing his eternal duties protecting the Master gem. He could hear the ringing noise too and he covered his own ear holes, "What the heck is going on?" He asked nobody but himself.

He looked back at the Master emerald which was glowing very bright which was very unusual.

"What's wrong?" Knuckles asked the Master emerald very loudly.

The Master Emerald was so bright that is was difficult to look at like the sun.

Knuckles shielded his eyes from the impossible brightness that was.

The Master emerald began making a humming noise that got louder and louder as the ringing began to fade away.

Knuckles uncovered his ears but continued to shield his eyes.

The Master emerald then shot a huge beam of energy at the sky which in turn made the sky and land grow dark as the clouds came close together. The energy beam made a wind tunnel in the clouds.

Knuckles recognized this, "I've only seen this in stories. Someone has destroyed a chaos emerald and now the Master emerald is going to punish the one responsible."

The energy beam from the Master emerald disappeared but the hole in the clouds still remained, "I have to follow the eye in the clouds and find out who did it for the Master emerald does." Knuckles ran through the jungle and eventually got to the edge of the floating island when he jumped off and glided towards the ground.

Tails had just come out of his workshop when he heard the noise dissipated, "Thank god that's over."

Everyone had met in the same place at Tail's workshop; Sonic and Amy, Knuckles landed near the group, and the Chaotix team came to including Espio.

"Did you guys hear that?" Vector asked.

"Yeah, I think we all did." Tails said.

"What was that?" Amy was still shocked from the noise.

Knuckles came in to explain to them what was happening, "Someone destroyed a chaos emerald, and now the Master emerald is sending an energy beam across the world until it finds who's responsible."

"That thing is a little over protective." Sonic said.

"The chaos emeralds are practically the Master emeralds children and it'll do anything to get revenge on the one responsible for killing one of its young." Knuckles replied.

"So what do we do?" Sonic asked.

"We have to follow the eye in the clouds; it looks like a tornado stuck in the sky."

Everyone looked up but Tail's was the only one who spoke up, "There it is!" he pointed to what looked like looking into a tornado, a hole that seemed to be spinning around with a glowing energy inside it moving in their direction across the ocean.

"Alright, let's move out!" Amy was ready to move but Sonic stopped her.

"I don't want you to go, Amy." Sonic told her for her own safety.

"We're a team; we have to do this together!" Amy complained.

"We are a team, but this seems too dangerous, even for you." Sonic tried convincing her.

"Why, just because I'm a girl, I can't handle it?" Amy said assumingly with her hands on her hips.

"No, because you're too important to me. I don't wanna lose you." Sonic admitted.

Amy smiled and nodded understandingly, "Okay, well what should I do." Amy asked.

"I need you and the others to check on Cream and Vanilla and see if their okay."

"I can do that." Amy said.

"Knuckles, Tails and I will go check out the chaos emerald problem."

"Okay." Amy and Sonic's hands slowly slipped away from each other as she walked over to the Chaotix group.

Sonic walked over to Knuckles and Tails and they all looked at each other.

"Let's do it." Knuckles said.

Tails spun his twin tail's and glided ahead with Knuckles and Sonic speeding along.


	24. A Fate that is Death

The wind blew like a hurricane passing through as Dr. Robotnik stood on the edge of a cliff in the backyard of his base. Robotnik couldn't help but stand there with nothing to say but, "What have I done?" in a tiny whisper as he looked at the angry sky.

The chaos emerald that was now in pieces lay on the ground and glowing so bright that anyone in a million mile radius or more could see it.

Robotnik looked at the clouds in the distance and saw something glowing inside a hole that spun like a tornado, "It's coming for me." Robotnik whispered again. He knew he'd done something so terrible that his 48 hours of living might be over in a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, Sonic and his two friends; Tails and Knuckles fought against the strong hurricane like winds. They raced through forest's whose trees were swaying to and fro like a man head banging violently. It wasn't a good time to be in a forest when the trees were about to break from the strong winds.

As they raced through the forest, one of the trees fell over in front of them and they jumped over the fallen trunk just in time. Ahead of them was a road filled with trees on their left and right sides and at the end of that road was the dirt road that led to an open area.

"We gotta hurry before these trees's fall and bury us under'em." Knuckles said

"Okay, here we go!" Sonic and the others gained speed at the same time. In a matter of seconds, the gang made it out of the forest and back into the open area. As the group kept running, Sonic looked up at the sky behind him to see how far behind that weird energy tornado was. He couldn't see it anymore until he looked right above him where it actually was, "Oh gee, this thing is faster than us!" Sonic yelled to the others.

"It's trying to beat us to the person responsible. It'll do anything to stop us from stopping it." Knuckles said.

"Then we better speed up a lot more!" Sonic suggested.

"Guys, look!" Tails pointed to the sky where lightning was shooting from.

"Oh great, it's getting worse!" Knuckles said.

"What do you mean?" right when Sonic asked that, a string of lightning shot down at Sonic but he quick stepped out of the way, "I see now."

"Watch out for the lightning AHH!" Knuckles then got shot by the lightning and fell back from the group.

"Knuckles!" Tails and Sonic yelled as they stopped and watched Knuckles fly backwards, hit the ground and roll on the ground until he stopped. He wasn't hurt badly; his body was just smoking from the electric shock.

Sonic and Tails were about to go back for him when Knuckles looked up and said, "Go on without me, I'll catch up!"

Sonic and Tail's hesitated not feeling good about leaving a good friend behind.

"Hurry!" Knuckles ordered waving his hands forward.

Sonic and Tail's did as they were told and sped off towards the energy tornado hoping to catch up before it beats them.

Sonic and Tail's thought the race would last a while when they saw the energy tornado slow down ahead, "Why's it slowing down?" Tails asked.

"I have no clue, buddy." Sonic replied.

They kept running until they came to a big city and a big neon sign that read "Robotnikland"

"You don't think..." Tails began.

"It's possible." Sonic and Tail's didn't stop just because they were about to cross on Robotnik's territory. They kept running towards the city that lit up land around it.

Robotnik still stood at the cliff edge watching the energy tornado and waiting for his demise because he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it, "fate has brought death to me earlier than expected." A single tear trickled from under his glasses and down his face, "but I'm ready." he smiled knowing that Mobius will be a better place without him.

The energy tornado stopped above him, "hit me with your best shot." Robotnik whispered.

The energy inside the swirling hole of the clouds made the hole glow brighter. The hole made a humming noise as the energy ball built up inside it and as quickly as a blinking eye; a green translucent energy beam was shot down towards Robotnik. The energy beam surrounded Robotnik and started to punish him for his deeds by sucking the life out of him.

Robotnik couldn't breathe and each time he gasped for air there was nothing he could breathe in. His body was becoming thinner and his mustache color turned grey. His nose lost its redness and turned a dark peach like the rest of his human skin. His body was lifted from the ground slowly.

"Eggman!" a voice echoed in the distance.

Robotnik turned his eyes towards the voice and saw a blue object jumping at him along with a yellow object behind the blue one. The blue and yellow objects became clearer as Sonic and Tail's.

"Hold my leg; I'm going to try to get him out of there!" Tails ordered Sonic.

Sonic held Tail's leg so he wouldn't get sucked into the energy beam.

Tail's flew to Robotnik's floating level and put his hand inside the beam. Instantly, Tail's felt the beam's power and the glove on his hand began falling apart, "Grab my hand!" He told Robotnik.

Robotnik was too weak to move any of his body parts. He could only stare at Tail's and not say a word.

Tail's didn't want to watch Robotnik waste away, so he went in further and grabbed Robotnik's arm himself and told Sonic, "Pull us out!"

Sonic pulled Tail's leg making Tails and Robotnik fly out of the beam.

Tail's and Robotnik fell to the ground but Robotnik fell the hardest since he was almost dead with almost no feeling left in his body.

The energy beam shot back up into the sky and disappeared. The clouds dispersed, letting in a glimmer of sunlight that sparkled over Robotnik's body as if Heaven was calling for him.

Sonic and Tail's ran over to Robotnik's body and kneeled over it.

Sonic held up Robotnik's head, "Eggman, can you hear me?"

Robotnik's throat wheezed like it was trying to grab some air to breath. He couldn't speak.

"Don't die on me, Eggman." Sonic said nearly in tears.

Again, Robotnik didn't say anything. His breathing was scratchy.

"You're going to be okay, don't die, please!" bitter tears fell down Sonic's face like a tiny waterfall.

Robotnik's vision began to get blurry. Sonic and Tail's didn't look like anything but blue and yellow blobs to him. The last thing he heard was Sonic screaming, "Eggman!" the screaming faded away into dim echoes until it finally died and all he could see was darkness.


	25. A Family Reunion

It only seemed like minutes after he had passed out that he had awoken in a bright white room filled with people that cared for him; Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and cheese, Vanilla, and the Chaotix team. Robotnik lay in a bed somewhere in the medical wing of his base and all these people surrounded Robotnik waiting for him to wake up.

Cream at the end of Robotnik's bed noticed him stirring in his sleep, "Mr. Sonic, I think he's waking up." Cheese confirmed it as well saying, "Chao chao!" while pointing at him.

Everyone looked at Robotnik and he looked at all of them. He didn't know what was going on. He thought at first that maybe they were getting revenge for his evil doings but then he remembered what happened before he passed out. He remembered Sonic at his side crying for him to live. Robotnik looked over at Sonic whom was at the right side of his bed looking down at him, "You saved me?" Robotnik's voice was still raspy.

"I did." Sonic said.

"But why?" Robotnik wondered, "I've done...so many bad things to you and your friends and the world...I deserve death."

"I would never wish death on you, Eggman." Sonic gestured towards the others surrounding Robotnik's bed, "And neither would they. We just wished you would stop being evil and just maybe...we could be friends." He smiled at him.

Robotnik smiled back and for the first time not feeling any hatred towards Sonic, "I would like that too."

Cream walked over to Sonic's side of Robotnik's bed and presented a ring of flowers to Robotnik, "I made this for you Mr. Eggman." Cheese took the flower hat and put it on Robotnik's head. "I hope you get better soon."

"Thank you little Creamy and Cheese." Robotnik smiled down at Cheese and then down at Cream

Cream smiled back and ran back to her spot at the end of the bed. Cheese followed her.

Robotnik looked at Sonic again with a guilty face, "Sonic, I have to apologize for how I treated you earlier with the mind control and all."

"Apology accepted, and I have to admit, that was one of your best inventions yet." Sonic snickered.

"Even I was impressed with your work ." Tail's admitted proudly.

"You think?" Robotnik asked feeling proud of himself.

"Yeah. As smart as I am, I wouldn't be able to make something like that." Tails said.

"Well, thank you Tails, that makes me feel good to hear that from a fellow scientist." Robotnik said.

"You're welcome." Tails smiled.

"So what's the deal with this 24 hours to live stuff, Eggman?" Knuckles asked.

"24 hours?" Robotnik thought, "That beam must've taken some time off my life."

The room was silent for a moment waiting for Robotnik to spill the beans.

"Come on, Eggman, tell us." Amy said sympathetically.

Robotnik hesitated but he went ahead and told them, "Years ago before I was Dr. Ivo Robotnik, I was Dr. Ovi Kintobor. I had an accident with some Chaos emeralds I was trying to suck the evil out of and they transformed me into an evil person. And it seems that the Chaos energy is leaving my body and taking me with it, so to speak."

"You were exposed to Chaos emeralds?" Tails asked surprised.

"That's correct." Robotnik sat up in his bed.

Sonic looked over at Tails, "Didn't you say something the other day about how the Chaos emeralds can hurt people?"

"You remember that?" Robotnik asked.

"I may have been under mind control, but I could still hear everything and see everything." Sonic said to Robotnik.

"I had no idea." Robotnik said, but then he gestured for Tail's to move along with his story.

"Anyways yea I did some testing on Sonic's use on the Chaos emerald's energy and it showed that when the energy is used up, the chaos emeralds take some of Sonic's energy so the emeralds can be used again in the future." Tails explained.

"My my, that's no good." Robotnik said.

"In my opinion, I think we shouldn't use Chaos emeralds anymore." Tail's suggested for everyone.

"Ditto to that, buddy." Sonic agreed. Then he looked over at Robotnik, "Because if they're going to kill you, I'm never going to go near those things ever again." his eyes began to water up.

"This sucks, you just turned good and now you're going to die?" Amy said beginning to cry, "I'm really going to miss you, Eggman."

"Me too." Tails said beginning to tear up.

Everyone got close to Robotnik and gave him a big group hug, "You guys are sweet, and I wish I didn't have to go." Robotnik felt sad and happy at the same time. He felt the love he never got from real people before and yet he was about to lose it in 24 hours. He wondered why he couldn't have turned good before, he would've been loved a lot longer.

"What will we do without you?" Amy asked whose eyes were filled with tears.

"You'll live your lives, that's what you'll do. I want you guys to live your lives to the fullest." Robotnik said.

Everyone looked and listened to him.

"Do you understand me? I don't want you to grieve about my death. I want you to forget and live." He said in a serious tone.

"I can try, but it's going to be really hard." Tail's admitted with tears.

"I know my little fox, but it will get easier, trust me." he smiled a warm smile and that only made Tail's sadder because Tail's is never going to see that smile ever again.

Everyone backed away slowly.

"Is there anything special you would like to do for your last 24 hours?" Sonic asked.

Robotnik was puzzled by the question, he thought about it for a bit and he finally knew, "Everything."

Everyone liked the idea and volunteered to make his last day on Mobius the best day ever.


	26. The End of His days

Blasting through the green landscape, Sonic pushes Robotnik in his wheel chair. Robotnik now understood what it was like to be Sonic running at supersonic speeds. He couldn't see anything coming his way; he could only see the tree's passing by in a blur. He could feel his now grey mustache wrapping around in his face from the wind blowing at him so hard and all he had to say was, "Yahoo!" He held his hands up in the air as if he was riding a rollercoaster.

Sonic stopped the wheel chair at a field of beautiful flowers that looked like a big fluffy cloud.

The first thing Robotnik wanted to do was pick some flowers with Sonic. Robotnik wore a white lab coat with a white buttoned up t-shirt underneath and blue pants.

Sonic helped Robotnik out of his wheel chair by allowing Robotnik to push himself up using Sonic's shoulders.

Robotnik was thin now so it wasn't a problem for Sonic, "That was excellent my dear hedgehog, I can't wait to do it again." Robotnik commented while standing up slowly. He was already sounding different, his voice sounded pleasant like a British man's voice.

"I'm glad you liked it, Eggman."

"Please, call me Ovi." Kintobor asked which his real name was.

"No problem, Ovi." Sonic didn't like the sound of that name, it tasted funny, "It really rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?" Sonic laughed and so did Kintobor.

"You always know how to make me smile, Sonic." Kintobor said planting a big smile on his face and showing his perfect white teeth.

"I just wish I knew how to save you from dying." Sonic commented losing his smile but leaving a small smirk of one.

"I would gladly take a cure if someone came up with one. But, Sonic this is probably for the best." Kintobor said touching Sonic's shoulder sympathetically.

"Whatever you say, doc." Sonic was kind of mad that Kintobor was taking this dying thing so poorly. If Sonic was Ovi, he would try to find a cure quickly. Sonic though, he didn't want to show signs of anger at Ovi, he wanted to give him anything he wanted for his last day on earth.

"So what flowers shall we pick today?" Kintobor asked feeling happy for Sonic.

"Well, we can pick these tulips here," The ones they were closest to, "Or the daisies over there," Sonic pointed to another pack of flowers not too far, "Or we can get some nice roses at the other end all the way over there." He pointed to a big red patch of land that was a lot farther.

"Let's get all of them; I've got loads of time." Kintobor said feeling adventurous.

"You got it, doc."

Together they picked flowers from all over the place. It was a fun experience for them to be spending time with each other as best friends. Sometimes Kintobor would feel so good that he actually ran through the flowers and taking in the flower's scent as it wafted through the air.

Sometimes Kintobor had too much flowers to carry and he pretty much dropped the whole bunch into a big garden of flowers so it was hard to find, like a needle in a hay stack.

Sonic eventually helped and found them all. He told Kintobor to hold them tight so they don't fly away.

Kintobor did as he was told and he knew why he had to grip them tightly. He had to hold them tightly because when Sonic pushed Kintobor in his wheelchair again, the flowers almost flew off behind them. Even if the flowers did disappear, he would've still had a great time picking them.

Sonic and Kintobor stopped at Cream the rabbit's house to drop off the flowers. Sonic pushed Kintobor to Cream's front door and Kintobor knocked on it.

Cream came to the door and opened it. She felt happy to see him and she felt even more joy seeing all the flowers lying in Kintobor's lap, "Oh wow, look at all of those flowers!"

"And this cool dude picked them all just for you." Sonic said pointing down at Kintobor.

Kintobor looked up at Sonic. He felt weird getting all the credit for what Sonic helped with too.

Sonic winked at Kintobor basically saying, "You're welcome."

Kintobor didn't want to argue, so he went ahead and said, "Just for you, Creamy my dear." Kintobor took a handful of flowers and handed them to her.

Cream took them and said, "Hold on, I'm going to get a basket to put all of these in." She held up one finger to say "wait a minute." She ran deep into the house and out of view from Sonic and Kintobor.

Cream's mother Vanilla came to the door wearing a welcoming smile, "Why hello how is you this afternoon?" She asked nicely.

"I've never felt better Ms. Vanilla, and please call me Ovi or Kintobor if you would be so kind to do so."

"It would be my pleasure Dr. Kintobor." She politely bowed her head to him, "Are those flowers for me?" Vanilla asked feeling flattered.

"They can be if Cream would be so kind as to share them with you." Kintobor said.

"She will, she always does." Vanilla chuckled as did Kintobor.

Cream came back with a basket for the flowers.

Kintobor scooped up some flowers from his lap and put them in the basket, "there you go my dear. Now make sure to share those with your dear sweet mother." He looked up at Vanilla and they smiled at each other, he looked down at Cream again.

"I will Mister, I promise." Cream put the basket down and jumped up at Robotnik to give him a hug, "Thank you."

Kintobor hugged back, "You're welcome." He patted her on the back.

Cream got off of Kintobor and ran back inside the house.

"Can you stay for dinner Mr. Kintobor?" Vanilla asked.

"I'm afraid not, I have a lot of things to get done today. Busy, busy, busy." He chuckled. "I understand, I hope you have a good night Mr. Kintobor." Vanilla said.

"You too, Vanilla."

Vanilla and Cream waved good bye to Kintobor as the door slowly closed.

"Why'd you give me all the credit for, Sonic?" Kintobor asked Sonic while being pushed down a dirt road.

"Come on, today is your day, Ovi, and I want your day to be the best." Sonic said.

Kintobor sighed, "I guess if you don't mind, then I won't either."

"Trust me, doc, I don't." Sonic patted Kintobor on the shoulder from behind the wheelchair, "So, what do you want to do next old buddy?"

"I want to fish. Can we do that, Sonic?" Kintobor asked looking back at Sonic.

"We sure can, and I know the perfect guy to take you to for fishing." Sonic pushed the wheelchair into supersonic speed toward that person.

Sitting on a flat rock with a fishing rod near the ocean was none other than Big the Cat, "Gee that wind storm was crazy huh, Froggy?" His pet frog was sitting next to him on the rock, "I thought you were going to fly away and I'd never see you again." He concentrated on his fishing, "Good thing that didn't happen huh, Froggy?"

Out of nowhere, Sonic and Kintobor show up at Big's fishing spot, "Yo Big, mind if Ovi here takes a whack at your fishing rod?" Sonic asked.

"Sure, Sonic, but I haven't caught anything all day," He handed the rod to Kintobor, "But you can try it." Big didn't know who this Ovi Kintobor was since he looked a lot different now with his grey whiskers and thin body and new voice.

"Thank you Big." Kintobor smiled upon him. He reeled the fishing lure back in until it was rolled all the way back up. He swung the rod backwards and swung it forward as hard as he could until the lure unrattled all the way out into the ocean.

"Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky Mr. Ovi" Big said.

As soon as Big said that, something grappled the fishing bait on the hook. The lure was shaking aggressively, "Looks like my luck's just starting." Kintobor said tugging on the rod. He reeled it in as best he could.

"You got it!" Big cheered him on.

Kintobor reeled and reeled until the lure was dragged out of the water and on the hook was a nice juicy fish jumping around.

"I wish I was as good as you Mr. Ovi." Big complimented.

"It was just luck." Kintobor got the fish off of the hook and offered it to Big, "Here you go all yours."

Big took the fish and looked happily at it, "Look froggy, our first fish of the day." He showed the fish to his pet frog and all the frog did was croak. He looked at Kintobor, "Thank you mister."

"It was my pleasure." Kintobor said.

"You wanna do it again?" Big asked.

"Sure, why not." Kintobor happily accepted and Big was happy to watch him fish. For an hour or two, Kintobor fished and he had a great time doing it as well.

So far, Dr. Ovi Kintobor has picked flowers with Sonic, went fishing with Big the cat, and hiked up some mountains. Kintobor actually decided to have dinner with Vanilla and Cream.

Sonic also joined them for dinner.

It was hard for Kintobor to eat because at the time he wasn't feeling all too well. He felt weaker than before but he didn't show it because he didn't want to alarm anyone or ruin anyone's day.

At the end of the day, Kintobor basically did everything he was able to. He was happy with everything he was able to do. Even though he didn't get to do everything, he was still happy that he could spend it with Sonic.

The sun was starting to set when Sonic rolled Kintobor slowly pass the beach. To Sonic, It wasn't the end of the day, it was the end of a friendship he always dreamed of having with Kintobor. Sonic decided to take Kintobor to the beach and just enjoy the sunset. Sonic sat on the sand with Kintobor sitting in his wheelchair next to him.

"Thank you, Sonic. This has been the best day of my life." Kintobor was becoming sad. He watched as the sun slowly descended behind the ocean line and the sky becoming dark and filled with stars.

"I was glad to help. I just wish it didn't have to end like this." Sonic was becoming sad as well.

"All that is well ends well my dear hedgehog." He looked down at Sonic with his beautiful blue eyes, "and to me, today has ended well for me." He smiled at Sonic like a father would to his son.

"I guess if you're happy with it, then I should be happy for you, right?" Sonic couldn't hold back his tears any longer and Kintobor saw that.

"Come here, Sonic." Kintobor offered a hug.

Sonic stood up and gave him one and didn't let go for a long time, "I'm going to miss you, doc." His tears stained Kintobor's lab coat

"I know you will, and I will miss you." Kintobor said crying too, "But I'll be watching over you all the time." he rubbed Sonic's back for comfort as Sonic sobbed into Kintobor's shoulder.

Sonic had nothing to add. He just wanted to cry his sadness out.

"Listen to me," Kintobor said still holding Sonic, "When I'm gone, I don't want you to grieve for me. I want you to move on, do you understand me?"

"I do," He stepped back when Kintobor held him at shoulder's length and looked him in the eye.

"That's a good boy." Kintobor stroked Sonic's head fur.

Sonic smiled with tears running down his face.

For the rest of the night, Sonic lay by Kintobor's side and eventually fell asleep until morning arose. When morning came, Kintobor looked to be in a deep sleep but he actually passed away. Even if Sonic were to move Kintobor's arm, it would fall down again. Sonic wondered if he could cry again but his sobbing came as fast as he asked the question. He cried and cried while kneeling next to his wheel chair.

Later that afternoon, they had a special funeral for Dr. Ovi Kintobor at the beach. They put his dead body in a boat and the boat floated between the sand on the beach and the ocean waves sliding on and off the beach. Everyone was there; Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, The Chaotix, Big the Cat, and of course Sonic the hedgehog whom was going to be the one to push the boat into the ocean when everyone was ready.

Knuckles was nice enough to make a tombstone with a block of concrete stuck in the sand of the beach. Engraved in the concrete it read:

Dr. Ovi Kintobor

Mobius's greatest enemy

Greatest Scientist

Most beloved Friend in the end.

Sonic put his foot onto the boat and pushed the boat into the ocean letting the waves pull him in.

The ocean waves carried Dr. Ovi Kintobor and the boat way out into the ocean where nobody could drag him back onto land.

Sonic watched the boat float away and in his mind he said, "Sayonara Dr. Ovi Kintobor." A single tear fell from his eyes but he wiped it away quickly.

The boat eventually went over the falls of Green Hill and the boat and his body were never seen again.

Many days after the funeral, everyone was going on with their lives like Dr. Ovi Kintobor wished. They all still thought about him from time to time but they didn't grieve.

Knuckles retrieved the broken chaos emerald and laid it next to the Master emerald along with the other 6 emeralds where they will now be kept from now on.

Tail's had the privilege of destroying Robotnik Land. The whole city went down in smoke and debris when he detonated the TNT that was planted everywhere in the city.

Sonic and Amy were now dating. They spent every day and night together and they couldn't have been happier.

Sonic went to Dr. Ovi Kintobor's grave at the beach and put flowers on it almost every day and everyday he went back the flowers were always gone. He didn't know how it was happening but he had a feeling that maybe Kintobor's spirit was picking them up. He could still feel Kintobor's spirit surrounding him every time he went to his grave. It was almost like he never left Mobius.

From that day and so forth for the rest of their lives, Sonic and his friends lived in peace and happiness.

The End


End file.
